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Health Care Workers In NYS Prisons Alarmed Not To Be In First COVID Vaccine Phase

Clinton County Correctional Facility
Pat Bradley/WAMC
Clinton County Correctional Facility

Healthcare professionals who work in New York state prisons are raising alarm after learning that they will not be in the first batch of frontline employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

According to the New York State Department of Health’s COVID-19 vaccine guidancefor the first four weeks of distribution, Phase 1A includes healthcare personnel (both paid and unpaid personnel working in a healthcare setting), medical first responders including medical examiners, coroners, funeral workers, ambulatory care providers, and those living and working in long-term care facilities "including congregate settings overseen by Office of People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD), Office of Mental Health (OMH) and Office of Addiction Service and Support (OASAS)."

Phase 1B includes vaccinating essential frontline workers and those over 75.  Phase 1C includes other essential workers, people over 65, and those over age 16 with high-risk medical conditions. The guidance estimates that New York has more than 2 million healthcare personnel. 

One source who spoke with WAMC News is a medical doctor at a prison in the state.

The doctor says prison healthcare employees first learned Wednesday morning on a conference call that medical staff in New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision facilities will be vaccinated in Phase 1B and not in Phase 1A.

The doctor says the announcement was made by Dr. John Morley, the Chief Medical Officer for the NYSDOCCS.

“I’m completely demoralized,” the doctor said. “It’s just incredibly unfair.”

WAMC is granting the sources anonymity because they fear retribution and were not authorized to speak to the press.

Sources who work at one correctional facility in the WAMC listening area say COVID-19 is already a problem among inmates and staff there, with cases requiring prisoners to be isolated.

WAMC spoke with a registered nurse who has worked in prisons for more than two decades. The nurse works in direct patient care, having close contact with inmates a few times a day, even during the pandemic.

The nurse said while all inmates in the facility are now provided masks, COVID-19 has spread there anyway.

“We have a significant outbreak at this facility in the inmate population as well as the civilian population, security population,” the nurse said. “We need the vaccine to keep going.”

According to DOCCS, as of Dec. 31, 2020, more than 3,000 staff and 3,000 inmates had contracted the virus to date statewide, with more than 2,200 inmates recovered and out of isolation.

As it did in March when the pandemic began, New York suspended visits to state prisons as of 3 p.m. Dec. 30 due to rising coronavirus cases.

Visits had started back up in August.

WAMC requested comment from the New York State Department of Health and New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

In an email, a DOCCS spokesman said: “Throughout the pandemic, the Department has worked in consultation with the NYS Department of Health (DOH), following facts and science, as the entire incarcerated population was tested for COVID-19. DOCCS is continuing to partner with DOH as part of the New York State COVID-19 Vaccination Program that was previously announced.”

The first New Yorkers to receive a COVID-19 vaccine began getting the first of two shots on Dec. 14. The DOH guidance warns “limited amounts” of the vaccine will be available during the first phase of distribution, and adds “the first group to be vaccinated will be health care personnel within the facility at high risk for transmitting or becoming infected with COIVD-19 [sic]. This group includes not only clinicians, but any staff who work in settings where transmission is likely, or who are at higher risk of transmitting the virus to patients who are at elevated risk of severe morbidity or mortality.”

A lifelong resident of the Capital Region, Ian joined WAMC in late 2008 and became news director in 2013. He began working on Morning Edition and has produced The Capitol Connection, Congressional Corner, and several other WAMC programs. Ian can also be heard as the host of the WAMC News Podcast and on The Roundtable and various newscasts. Ian holds a BA in English and journalism and an MA in English, both from the University at Albany, where he has taught journalism since 2013.