Officials: Vaccines Work, But Don’t Expect A Local Mandate
Officials: Vaccines Work, But Don’t Expect A Local Mandate
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Officials: Vaccines Work, But Don’t Expect A Local MandateVaccination statistics across Indiana and Kosciusko County remain disappointing to officials.
Over 6.4 million doses across the state have been given, just 0.1 million more than a week ago, Kosciusko County Public Health Officer Dr. William Remington said at Wednesday’s weekly press conference. In the county, just a little over 300 patients have been immunized over the last week, putting Kosciusko at an immunization rate of 42% of those 12 and older. The metric is 45% for those 18 and older.
“Vaccines continue to provide the strongest protection against COVID. Less than 5% of hospitalized COVID cases are immunized people. Vaccines are highly protective and they’re safe. We should immunize,” Remington stated. “In some facets, I applaud a vaccine mandate. I’m ready to get there. I’m tired of this thing. Tired of seeing deaths, hearing phone calls from people who have lost loved ones. We can do better than this. If it takes mandates, or corporations, to get their employees immunized, I’m all for it. It’s not going to hurt you. Rarely is someone bothered significantly from a vaccine.”
He acknowledged there are breakthrough cases, which are disappointing, but said vaccines are still highly protective.
The Health Department continues to offer and promote COVID immunization. “We are still there Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 8:30 to 10 a.m., offering COVID immunizations,” he said, and they offer all three vaccines.
To get a shot, go to ourshot.in.gov; call 211; or go to the Health Department or a pharmacy.
Mayor Joe Thallemer said there are opportunities in the county for people to get the vaccine. A second drive-thru COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine clinic is 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, 225 N. Gilliam Drive, Warsaw. This event follows a drive-thru Pfizer vaccine clinic that was held Aug. 28 at that location. They also will be taking walk-ups for the first shot, he said.
Bowen Center President and CEO Kurt Carlson said the testing site at the fairgrounds surged to over 200 a day. To meet the demand, staffing has been added. Over the last two weeks, the site has been averaging about 160 tests per day. Of those being tested, an average of 37% have symptoms. The number of Hispanics being tested has dropped to eight a day, compared to one-third of those being tested previously. The highest number of persons coming to the test site are those 11 to 20 years old and 21 to 30.
When President Joe Biden started talking about vaccine mandates for government employees, hospitals and healthcare facilities that received Medicaid and Medicare, Carlson said he thought “that we would see more opportunities for people to see that they had to get the vaccine, and now we’re hearing that (Indiana) Gov. (Eric) Holcomb and (Attorney General) Todd Rokita are opposing that, so it’s a bit discouraging in a way.”
Carlson talked about people he’s known who have hospitalized or died from COVID.
“It’s just discouraging when it gets that close, to people I work with,” he said.
On Sept. 9, Biden ordered new federal vaccine requirements. The expansive rules, in part, mandate that all employers with more than 100 workers require them to be vaccinated or test for the virus weekly, according to the Associated Press.
Asked about a rumor that the city of Warsaw was contemplating a vaccine mandate for its employees, Thallemer said he didn’t know where that conversation came from other than the federal mandate for employers with 100 or more employees.
“Obviously, we fit into that purview,” he said. “Does that mean that will happen? I can’t tell you. I would go so far as to say I think everyone should be vaccinated, but I am not for vaccine mandates, and that sounds like a fairy tale, quite frankly. But, I like to try to appeal to folks how critical and important this is. We’re in a situation right now we’re not seeming to get out of. And, again, that’s one metric we can control, is our vaccination rate. That’s one metric that individuals can control, can put their slash on the board.”
He said he understands that people have legitimate concerns, including religious ones, but he feels “the politics should be taken out of this thing because the vaccines are safe. They work. They’ve been fully approved and, again, this gives us the opportunity to get out of this.”
But, as far as the city mandating to its employees, the city won’t do it – the federal government is trying to do it, Thallemer said. “I don’t know how far that’s going to go, to be quite frank with you,” he said.
County Commissioner Cary Groninger said he didn’t see the county having a vaccine mandate for its hundreds of employees either.
“For those that want the vaccine, we’re here to fully support that and make sure we have all the vaccines available and everything out there for people who want that. I agree it works and we need to try to stop this, but to force somebody to do something that’s a personal choice that they don’t want to do, I just struggle with that being the government’s job ... almost penalizing you on where you’re going to work or where you can and can’t work based on whether or not you’ve been vaccinated,” Groninger said.
Thallemer said there are questions as to whether or not the vaccine mandate is legal or not, and he was sure there would be a host of legal challenges to Biden’s order. He also said the city has no idea of how many of its employees are vaccinated, and Groninger said the county hasn’t tried to collect any data on that.
A little bit later, Groninger said what makes the community great is that it can have discussions on issues and influence one another on what is best for the community.
“I think we have a really conservative base here. It’s a little tougher to want to mandate something, just because you tell somebody they have to do it they maybe just not do it because you told them they have to,” he said. “So I think there’s that fine line that we’re all up here, doing our best, to try and navigate some unchartered waters that we thought we sailed through one time before, but it seems like this Delta variant is a different animal.”
He said you’re never going to make everybody happy with any decision.
Thallemer agreed with Groninger and added, “We’re all trying to do the best we can. We’ve been playing the numbers the whole way. As far as I’m concerned, that’s all we’ve been doing because that’s all we can do. And, again, it’s numbers, it’s letters, it’s trying to squeeze this thing.”
He said the federal mandate will go through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
“To me, the rules that come out, and the enforcement mechanism, will be through OSHA. Again, when the final rule comes out, I believe it’s Sept. 24, which isn’t really that far off, certainly there may be more questions and legal challenges. That OSHA rule is how the federal government plans on enforcing and imposing these rules on the health and safety of the workforce,” Thallemer said.
