Following an executive session during its Dec. 15 Chaffee Board of County Commissioner meeting (BoCC), county commissioners declined to proceed on a COVID-19 vaccination draft policy that would have required county employees to be given the new COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available to their departments.
The draft policy was developed by the county legal department addressing the situation where the county might be required to provide workers compensation in situations where county employees who refuse vaccination, then contract the coronavirus.
Image courtesy of the CDC.
“This is a policy for vaccinations; they’ll be available for first responders, but some people don’t want to be vaccinated,” said County Attorney Jennie Davis. “It’s different if there is a first responder who doesn’t want to be vaccinated. This impacts the availability of workers comp – if they get sick with COVID after declining the vaccination, we need direction.”
“I can’t see us forcing our employees to take it…if they have reservations [about it],” said Commissioner Rusty Granzella. “Whether we want them to sign something, I’m not comfortable now. I’d like to see the EMS people if they feel comfortable, I haven’t done enough research myself…
“It’s about 70 percent [who say they’d take it],” said Director of Finance Dan Short.
“Law enforcement isn’t quite there yet,” said Director of General Administration Bob Christensen.
“I just think we should be calm and deliberate and let the counties nationwide that have more resources than we do help get it sorted out,” said Commissioner Keith Baker. “Let department leadership build confidence among their people…we don’t need to be rushing headlong into this. Leave it up to individuals, explain things to them, reassure them about the vaccines. Being coercive at this point isn’t in our best interests as a county.”
“I would be afraid to set policy for how many people – 250 at this point?” asked Granzella.
Commissioners asked what the Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center (HRRMC) has done — wondering aloud if they are requiring it. HRRMC confirmed that at this time, staff vaccinations for the flu shot are mandatory, but not for the COVID-19 vaccine.
It should be pointed out that the salaries of county employees are paid for by the residents of Chaffee County. As a public entity with a mill levy paid by the residents of Chaffee County, so are the wages of HRRMC employees.
“Nothings been handled well at the federal level; I can understand that at this level, with this, we probably want to give it a little time,” said Chair of the BoCC Greg Felt. He added, “It won’t go to waste, if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time if you heard Andrea yesterday…you could feel a little prick.”
The coronavirus is surging nationwide, with more than 19 million cases in the United States, hospitals in other areas at capacity, and more than 325,000 dead. Chaffee has had 90 confirmed cases in the past 14 days and the hospital is at 48 percent capacity, with two COVID-19 cases. There have been 863 in-county cases since the start of the pandemic.
Note: Felt references that during the Dec. 14 COVID-19 Roundtable, Chaffee Director of Public Health Andrea Carlstrom commented that since it was discovered that there may be one extra dose of vaccine per vaccine container, that it appears that more people can be vaccinated during sessions than planned for.
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