First Responders in Jeopardy

First Responders in Jeopardy

From the dangers of conservative mythology

There is a difference between medical professionals, especially doctors and nurses, and those frontline, first responders who put their lives on the line, battling criminals, social unrest, guarding jails and prisons and fighting fires. There is a bravado, a machismo if you will for the men in these danger-facing fields, there is a physicality, an old-world vision of manliness. Even with a growing number of women in these professions. Guns and brawn. Discipline and pride. Power in the face of danger. Most have military experience. Almost a pioneer ethos, old West vision of what they do and what they mean for society. A rather dramatic, significant conservatism and vision of patriotism that often put them at odds with the society around them. 

We’ve seen this story unfold as police/fire fighters are often on the “other side” of liberal social issues and politicians. For example, the number of such first responders and those with military were part of the Capitol Hill mob on January 6th, and the number of right-wing militia members with the same background are alarming. Statistics tell us that 40% of Republican men still are not and have no intention of getting vaccinated, often repeating claims of “coronavirus is not much worse than a bad flu” despite mortality rates, that the entire COVID epoch is of Chinese manufacture used by liberals to push through unwarranted economic agenda or still, that the vaccine is both ineffective with major side effects, or that the entire matter remains a hoax/conspiracy theory promulgated by the radical left to take down righteous patriotic right-wing leaders. Given the conservative leanings of so many such frontline government officers, it is pretty obvious that they are not about to embrace “Democratic theories” about the necessity of a COVID vaccination.

Nothing evidences this commitment to right-wing causes, now manifest in nationalist Trumpism, like the abysmal vaccination rates within this body of first responders. Even in liberal California. Writing for the June 20th Los Angeles Times, Kevin Rector, Richard Winton, Dakota Smith and Ben Welsh drill down on a local California statistics, with vastly better first responder rates than virtually all red states: “When COVID-19 vaccines became available in California, police officers, firefighters and other first responders got priority access, and potentially more…

“But despite the priority access and array of incentives, vaccination rates for police, fire and corrections agencies across Los Angeles and California have lagged well behind the state’s average for adult residents, according to a survey of agencies conducted by The Times…While about 72% of adult Californians and 64% of L.A. residents 16 and older have received at least one vaccine dose, only about 51% of city firefighters and 52% of LAPD officers are at least partially vaccinated.

“Less than 30% of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department staff members have received vaccine doses through employee clinics. (Some could have received shots elsewhere, but the department doesn’t keep track.) About 54% of employees of state prisons are at least partially vaccinated, but rates plummet at certain facilities — with one site recording just 24% of its staff fully vaccinated.

“The low rates, which are not fully understood due to a lack of universal tracking, mar an otherwise positive outlook as the pandemic wanes and the state reopens. As first responders interact regularly with the public, the fact that many remain unvaccinated is a growing source of tension among city officials, public safety leaders and their rank-and-file workforces…

“Many in policing and other public safety sectors lean to the political right, among whom vaccines — and vaccine mandates — have been ridiculed, despite the fact that Republican leaders including former President Trump have been vaccinated… Skepticism was identified in the Los Angeles Police Department months ago, when an unscientific poll of 9,500 department employees found that 60% were willing to take the vaccine when offered. About 20% said they needed more information, and 20% said they would decline vaccinations.

“A major concern is first responders’ role in interacting with vulnerable residents. Research has shown lower rates of vaccination among homeless and mentally ill people and among young Black and Latino residents of L.A. County… The lower rates also show up among low-income residents who may work multiple jobs or worry that vaccination side effects could cause them to lose pay, as well as among immigrant communities that face language barriers or where fears about immigration enforcement run deep… 

“Prisoners, a substantial portion of whom remain unvaccinated, have no choice but to interact with corrections workers in tight quarters — where airborne diseases like COVID-19 can spread quickly… Nearly 50,000 state prisoners have contracted the coronavirus, and 224 have died, according to state data. Activists maintain that staffers are partially responsible for bringing the virus into the facilities.

“Since the start of the pandemic, more than 2,700 LAPD personnel have been infected with the coronavirus, and nine have died. Nearly 1,000 city firefighters have tested positive, and two have died. More than 17,000 state corrections staff members have been infected, and 28 have died.

Community leaders believe that police officers and other public safety officials have helped spread the virus by not wearing masks and refusing to get vaccinated, though such cases are difficult to quantify.” It would seem prudent, but to many political suicide, to require government employees, particularly safety-directed first responders, who routinely come into contact with the public in unprotected situations, to require these individuals, as a condition of employment, to get vaccinated. 

I’m Peter Dekom, and as ill-informed first responders with political agendas refuse to be vaccinated, we are unlikely to achieve herd immunity, and the virus is mutating into increasingly vaccine-resistant variants.