Vaccine Hesitancy, Even by Health Workers, Means Shots Expire, Variants Emerge, Pandemic Drags On

As President Biden pledges to buy half of a billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to give to the world, many Americans are refusing to get vaccinated, and thousands of Johnson & Johnson shots will expire soon.

This week, Houston Methodist Hospital suspended 178 staff members who refused to abide by its mandate that employees be fully vaccinated.

Democracy Now! speaks with infectious disease epidemiologist Dr. Syra Madad, who heads the largest public healthcare system in the United States and says we must counter vaccine hesitancy.

She also describes her own struggle to encourage health aides in her own household to get the shot. “It’s been an uncomfortable reality to see that we are now in June and nearly 50% of healthcare workers remain unvaccinated and unprotected.”

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