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Frontline worker on why she got the COVID-19 vaccine

Rafaelina Moran, custodial worker at Hackensack University Medical Center, tells reporter Lindy Washburn that she got the vaccine to protect her family.

Miguel Fernandez and Lindy Washburn, NorthJersey.com

The letter’s message was clear: Get vaccinated against COVID-19 by mid-September or risk losing your job with Wayne Township. 

The July 30 missive — sent by the town’s business administrator to more than 400 municipal employees —  struck a nerve with three officers from the Wayne Police Department, who along with their local union sued the township earlier this month to halt the policy.

But the suit failed when a state judge ruled last week that Wayne’s policy was justified because it protects the welfare of the general public. Wayne Mayor Chris Vergano said he agreed with the decision. 

“We’re out there in the public every day,” Vergano said. “We have to make sure that when we’re going into somebody’s house, we protect ourselves and we protect the public that we’re going to visit. They’re counting on us to take care of them.”

As the nation tries to claw away from the coronavirus pandemic, similar confrontations are flaring up from coast to coast between public officials who want their police vaccinated and officers who either fear the vaccine or simply don’t want to be told what to do. 

Low vaccination rates and the rapidly spreading delta variant — which a federal report called as contagious as the chickenpox — have pushed local governments in such cities as New York, Denver, Seattle and Honolulu to tell employees that they’re either getting vaccinated or finding a new job.

Some New Jersey towns, including Wayne, Hoboken and Newark, have followed suit. But so far, the state has shied away from installing a broad vaccination mandate that extends beyond certain high-risk professions such as jail guards or health care workers.

But it’s not out of the question, Gov. Phil Murphy said last week. 

“All of that is under consideration,” the governor said when he was asked about a possible mandate for teachers, state workers and law enforcement, among others. 

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The consequences of leaving a critical block of first responders such as police defenseless against the disease was made clear when the virus first struck New Jersey in the spring of 2020. 

Hundreds of officers fell sick, leaving chiefs scrambling to fill vacant shifts and keep departments running with a fraction of their strength. Some towns, including Hawthorne, Elmwood Park, Paterson and Guttenberg, have watched as whole chunks of their police force were pushed into quarantine. 

“I’ve lost entire units because of people being exposed to someone that was sick,” said Jerry Speziale, Paterson’s public safety director. “I’ve had entire squads that go home and sit down for [two weeks]. It definitely hits people.” 

Most thought this would end when Murphy announced that police and firefighters would be among the first people eligible for the vaccine in early January. But large numbers of police officers have elected not to get the shot —  even though the COVID-19 virus has shown its potency within the ranks.

To date, the national Fraternal Order of Police estimates that COVID has killed 537 officers nationwide. That includes 18 in New Jersey, according to the organization’s website. 

That makes the officers’ reluctance even more confounding, experts say. 

“It’s not groundbreaking, it’s not new — we’re just going to add one more vaccine to the already-required vaccines,” said Brian Higgins, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan and a former Bergen County police chief. “But I think the largest [issue] is the speed at which [the vaccine] came to be.” 

Pat Colligan, head of the 32,000-member New Jersey Policemen’s Benevolent Association, said he’s heard similar sentiments from members. 

“Law enforcement is a skeptical group to begin with, and they’re just leery of that emergency use authorization,” Colligan said, referencing the federal Food and Drug Administration’s use of a temporary approval that allows for mass inoculations while the agency studies the vaccine’s safety.

But should the FDA fully approve the coronavirus vaccines — as it is widely expected to do in the coming months — it would strip police of that argument, he said.

“It would be a losing battle in the courts,” Colligan said. 

Low vaccination rates among police

It’s still not clear how many of the state’s 38,000 law enforcement officers have been vaccinated.

County and state agencies — including the Attorney General’s Office, Health Department, state police and the governor’s office — said they were not tracking the number of vaccinated officers. 

Colligan believes the number to be around 40%, which would be in line with surveys of police forces around the country. 

Rank-and-file officers have long been wary of the vaccine. According to a December survey by Police1, an online news site for law enforcement, only 38% of more than 3,300 respondents said they planned to get inoculated. An equal number said they did not.

About 58% said they worried about potential side effects, far outweighing other concerns, and 66% said they felt no ethical obligation to get the shot. Nearly three-quarters said it should not be mandated. 

Nine months later, the survey seems prophetic. 

In late July, the New York City Police Department said it had administered vaccines to just 43% of its uniformed and civilian personnel. But those numbers may rise after Mayor Bill DeBlasio ordered that all city workers — including police — either get the shots by Sept. 13 or submit to weekly coronavirus tests.

A poll by the Denver police union found similar numbers. About half of the department responded to the survey. Of those, about 57% said they were unvaccinated.

Story continues below photo gallery

That city has also ordered all employees to receive their second shot by Sept. 15. Officials have said they are ready to discipline and even fire police officers who do not comply.

Locally, the numbers seem a bit better.

In Elmwood Park, Police Chief Michael Foligno said about 60% of his 49-officer force are fully vaccinated. But he doesn’t want to order officers to do it. “I think that’s a personal choice,” the chief said.

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Officers who remain hesitant have told Foligno they’re still unsure if they want to inject what they consider to be a rushed remedy.

“They say it’s too new, there’s not enough data on it or they don’t trust vaccines,” Foligno said, though he added that other restrictions may crop up instead. “I wouldn’t be comfortable mandating my guys to get it … but we’re creeping back towards maybe mandating unvaccinated cops wear masks. We’re going to go incrementally.”

Carrot or stick

The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office is already requiring employees to get the vaccine, a spokeswoman said. But it does not have the power to extend that requirement to local agencies. 

The Bergen County Sheriff’s Office, the county’s largest law enforcement agency, with more than 600 employees, will comply with Murphy’s executive order demanding that workers in high-risk settings such as jails be fully vaccinated by Sept. 7 or face weekly testing, according to spokeswoman Keisha McLean. 

That will directly affect the 267 corrections officers who guard the Bergen County Jail in Hackensack. The county government’s vaccine policy — which McLean said is still being developed — will likely govern the rest of the employees, she said. 

Neither the Passaic County prosecutor’s nor sheriff’s offices responded to inquiries about their vaccine policies or whether they were tracking how many officers had received the shots.

In Paterson, Mayor Andre Sayegh has no plans to mandate vaccines for the city’s 419 police officers. He cited the city’s high vaccination rate among residents — nearly 80%, he said — as the prime reason.

“It’s a conversation we’ve had with our public health officer,” Sayegh said, though he didn’t know offhand how many city employees were already vaccinated. “It’s something we monitor all the time.”

Experts said offering police a carrot to go along with the stick might entice officers to get the shot — maybe a day off or some other kind of bonus. 

Higgins, of John Jay, said officials also may want to appeal to the cops’ altruistic side. 

“A cop will draw attention from a shooter to protect the public,” Higgins said. “In effect, that’s what they’re doing here. You’re going to take on this vaccine to protect people … You have to say, ‘We recognize that there is a level of risk. But that’s what you guys do. You go into the unknown.’ “

Steve Janoski covers law enforcement for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news about those who safeguard your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @stevejanoski 

Source: Asbury Park

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