Charlie O’Neill obtained a part of her husband’s liver in a 2013 dwelling donor transplant and has been taking medication that suppress her immune system ever since to forestall her physique from attacking the organ.
“I regularly get infections,” she mentioned. “Simply being an immune-compromised particular person, you’re confronted with simply each little chilly and flu.”
O’Neill lives within the small city of Pony in southwestern Montana’s Madison Valley. Regardless of dwelling in an uncrowded rural setting, O’Neill mentioned, the primary yr of the coronavirus pandemic was terrifying. She hardly ever left house, ready for covid-19 vaccines to develop into accessible.
Even now, after being vaccinated, O’Neill mentioned the virus is all the time on her thoughts when she drives into close by Bozeman for groceries and different primary wants. She wears a masks and avoids folks as a lot as she will. Whereas vaccinations present sturdy safety towards hospitalization and loss of life for the standard particular person, they’re far much less efficient in those that are immunocompromised.
O’Neill developed abscesses on her liver, requiring day by day visits to the Bozeman hospital for antibiotic infusions. In a state the place the governor has inspired well being employees to hunt vaccination exemptions, she frightened about which of the many individuals concerned in her care have been as an alternative placing her in danger: the folks checking her in on the entrance desk, the touring nurses, the imaging technicians?
Gov. Greg Gianforte’s workplace estimates that “1000’s of well being care employees” have obtained spiritual exemptions and “stay within the workforce,” in response to a latest press launch.
“I so boldly ask folks typically simply in the event that they’re vaccinated, particularly if I’ve to take my masks off for MRIs or one thing like that,” O’Neill mentioned. She mentioned she’d request another person if a employee instructed her she or he have been unvaccinated or declined to reply, however that hasn’t occurred.
Most medical staffers throughout the U.S. at the moment are required to be totally vaccinated towards covid below a federal Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Providers rule. Whereas, legally, requests for spiritual or medical exemptions should be allowed at each establishment, in a lot of the nation they’re reviewed fastidiously and accepted judiciously. In New York Metropolis’s 12-hospital public system, for instance, 100% of workers members contained in the hospitals are vaccinated; the few who have been granted exemptions are assigned outdoors duties.
However in Montana, the pendulum has swung in a special route.
Gianforte, a Republican who opposed the federal mandate, inspired well being employees to hunt spiritual exemptions earlier than the Feb. 14 deadline to obtain one dose of vaccine. His administration supplied steerage to hospitals that mentioned the validity of well being care employees’ spiritual beliefs shouldn’t be questioned in looking for exemptions. Gianforte additionally instructed the state well being division to create an software for spiritual exemptions, which is posted on the prime of its web site to obtain.
When requested for an interview with Gianforte, spokesperson Brooke Stroyke referred to the governor’s open letter to well being employees dated Feb. 10.
“The State of Montana will proceed to press its claims that the mandate is unconstitutional or in any other case illegal within the district and appellate courts,” the letter learn. “Within the meantime, nonetheless, I urge these of you who’re unvaccinated to think about using the spiritual and medical exemptions that your employers are required to supply, in addition to speak to your colleagues or private well being supplier about getting vaccinated.”
The Equal Employment Alternative Fee mentioned that employers ought to assume a request for a spiritual exemption is predicated on sincerely held beliefs, however that if there may be an goal foundation for questioning the request, the employer is justified in making a restricted factual inquiry.
There’s no manner of realizing simply what number of well being care employees stay unvaccinated at any facility. Many hospitals throughout the state are unwilling to share the info.
Out of almost 65 hospital amenities statewide, 11 shared their exemption charges with Montana Public Radio, Yellowstone Public Radio, and KHN. These charges vary from below 1% at two crucial entry hospitals operated by the U.S. Indian Well being Service to 37% at Prairie Neighborhood Hospital in Terry. 4 amenities reported {that a} quarter or extra of their employees had exemptions.
Prairie Neighborhood Hospital CEO Burt Keltner mentioned he didn’t query exemption requests as a result of shedding almost 40% of his workers would shut the hospital.
“Among the those that had made the selection that they didn’t need to get the vaccine have been a few of our greatest workers,” he mentioned.
Montana Hospital Affiliation CEO Wealthy Rasmussen mentioned one purpose most hospitals are leery of sharing what number of employees stay unvaccinated is a legislation handed final yr prohibiting discrimination based mostly on vaccination standing. Hospitals concern that even offering percentages of unvaccinated employees might spell authorized hassle for them, he mentioned.
Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention spokesperson Martha Sharan mentioned the company will quickly publish nationwide vaccination charges for medical staffers in CMS-certified acute care hospitals. She added that the dashboard might finally embody nationwide information from different medical amenities taking part in sure CMS packages.
CMS will publish facility-level vaccination charges from these amenities on its Care Examine web site in October, CMS spokesperson Beth Lynk mentioned.
An evaluation of voluntarily reported information by the CDC discovered that nationwide 70% of workers members at medical amenities have been vaccinated as of mid-September however famous decrease vaccination charges have been doubtless in rural areas. That was earlier than the Biden administration introduced the CMS vaccine mandate, and charges have doubtless elevated since.
Paul Conway, chair of coverage and international affairs on the American Affiliation of Kidney Sufferers, mentioned the shortage of transparency round covid vaccination charges for medical employees places immunocompromised sufferers in a bind.
“Throughout covid, if you happen to’re in a dialysis middle the place you’re in there for hours, you’re having blood exchanged, you’re round plenty of totally different employees, you’re round plenty of totally different sufferers, your susceptibility could be very excessive,” he defined.
A College of Michigan research discovered {that a} quarter of sufferers on dialysis died in the event that they contracted covid. That research used information from 2020, when vaccines weren’t accessible till December.
Conway mentioned the kidney sufferers’ affiliation needs CMS to make vaccination charges for hospitals and dialysis facilities public to assist sufferers make knowledgeable selections. However in the intervening time, he mentioned, they’re on their very own. That leaves them within the uncomfortable place of interrogating caregivers about their vaccination standing at a time when that could be a charged situation in a lot of the nation.
“Sufferers all the time do have the proper and the liberty to ask the query and, equally, medical doctors and nurses even have the liberty to reply the query or not,” mentioned Joel Wu of the College of Minnesota’s Middle for Bioethics. “I feel answering the query in truth is necessary as a result of I feel it builds belief.”
Roger Gravgaard, a 62-year-old kidney transplant recipient from Billings who serves as a affected person advocate for kidney illness organizations, mentioned unvaccinated staffers want to know there are actual penalties for sufferers like him. He’s grateful all his suppliers have been forthcoming about being vaccinated with out his even having to ask, he mentioned.
“I really feel higher realizing that they’re vaccinated and I’d hope that they’ve the identical feeling realizing that I’ve been vaccinated, as a result of it’s a two-way road,” he mentioned.