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Vermont's Uneven Vaccine Mandates Leave Families With Vulnerable Loved Ones In Limbo

A photo of a white sandwich board with a blue arrow and text reading walk-in covid vaccination today
Wilson Ring
/
Associated Press
A sign promotes a walk-in COVID-19 vaccination clinic back in June in Waterbury. Minimal guidance from the state of Vermont about whether institutions should mandate the vaccine has created stress for those with loved ones who aren't eligible for a shot.

COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations have surged in Vermont in recent weeks, despite the state having the highest vaccination rate in the country. The rise in cases has pushed some businesses to mandate the shot for employees.

But for the most part, organizations in Vermont have been slow to institute vaccine requirements, and there’s been minimal guidance from the state. That’s led to stress for people with loved ones who aren’t eligible for a shot.

I met Erika Smith earlier this year while I was writing about people killed by COVID-19. We talked for nearly two hours about her 70-year old mother, who died during an outbreak at Berlin Health and Rehab.

More from VPR: ‘I Miss The Heck Out Of Him': A Year In, COVID-19 Has Killed More Than 200 Vermonters

But when I met up with her recently, we talked about her 5-year-old son, Rowen.

“This was Rowen the other day,” Smith says, holding her phone up. “We have a little, like, splash pad out on our lawn that we can hook the hose up, and it kind of squirts water up.”

Rowen is flashing a crooked smile at the camera. He's in a wide-brimmed sun hat and sitting in a shallow pool with a yellow plastic bucket in one hand.

Smith says Rowen is energetic and loves peek-a-boo and the animated TV show Paw Patrol. And even though he can’t talk, he has a lot to say.

“I joke and say he's the most verbal nonverbal child you'll ever meet,” Smith says. “He's loud, he has a lot to say, and he makes really good eye contact when he is expressing himself, and he clearly knows what he is trying to say.”

Rowen was diagnosed with a rare brain malformation when he was 4 months old. Smith says he has significant developmental and physical impairments. Some of those have put him at risk for serious complications from respiratory infections. Rowen’s been hospitalized more than two dozen times.

“It's not fun to be next to your child in the hospital,” Smith said. “It's not fun to see your child on a ventilator. I've been there and I've seen that.”

Smith and her family, who live in East Montpelier, have diligently followed public health measures like masking and physical distancing. Smith and her husband, who are both nurses, are vaccinated. So is their older son. But Rowen isn’t old enough to get a shot, and that means for now, he can’t go to school in person.

“The kindergarten teacher’s been really active in our Zoom meetings, and really involved,” Smith said. “But, again, students will be in person, and he will not be.”

Five year-old Rowen sits in a shallow pool on a recent summer day. Rowen's mother, Erika Smith, says he loves being in the water.
Erika Smith
/
Courtesy
Five year-old Rowen sits in a shallow pool on a recent summer day. Rowen's mother, Erika Smith, says he loves being in the water.

Smith says the school offered to send a fully-vaccinated, masked teacher to the family’s home to give Rowen some in-person instruction. To Smith, this was a great solution. She just needed to coordinate Rowen’s nursing care through Central Vermont Home Health and Hospice. Smith asked the agency to only send vaccinated staff to their home.

“And that's really what opened the whole can of worms,” Smith said.

Smith got an email back from the company saying it couldn’t share the vaccination status of its employees due to privacy rules.

Smith didn’t know what to do. She could refuse service from the agency, but she felt like there had to be another option.

“So yeah, I'm really, really distressed by this,” she said.

Last Friday, a week after I spoke to Smith, I reached out to Central Vermont Home Health and Hospice. CEO Sandy Rousse wouldn’t speak directly about Smith’s situation.

“Our policies and the mitigation measures are designed to protect every client that we see, every client we care for, as well as our staff,” Rousse said in a phone interview.

Rousse said more than 80% of her staff is vaccinated. And she told me that the agency was going to require staff to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 1 or get tested weekly.

When I asked when that would be announced, she said they’d tell staff “pretty much today or Monday.”

Other home health agencies, like Addison County Home Health and Hospice, don’t have a vaccine requirement. But the entire staff, aside from one person with a medical exemption, has gotten the shot, said CEO Deb Wesley.

“We had a lot of conversations about real science, and if people had questions, had dialogue … we wanted people to be comfortable in making a choice,” she said. “So we didn’t have to mandate. Was that off the table, down the road? No, but we never had to come to that decision.”

More from VPR: Reporter Debrief: Gov. Scott Announces COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate For Some State Employees

The recent surge in COVID-19 cases has driven some organizations to announce vaccine mandates.

The University of Vermont Health Network will require its 13,000 workers to get the shot by Oct. 1 or get tested weekly. On Friday, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger announced a similar rule for city employees. Even some bars and restaurants, like Higher Ground in South Burlington, now require customers to show proof of vaccination.

But there are few statewide mandates. Gov. Phil Scott said he’s reluctant at this time to declare a state of emergency that would give him more sweeping powers.

“The cases aren’t expanding dramatically, the hospitalizations are half of what we saw in early parts of the year," Scott said on Tuesday during his weekly press briefing. “So until such time as there is an emergency, there’s no reason to impose one. You don’t want to abuse this.”

Some state employees, including corrections officers and those at the state psychiatric hospital, are required to get the shot.

When I got back in touch with Erika Smith this week, she told me she was relieved to hear Central Vermont Home Health and Hospice was finally mandating the vaccine for its workers.

But she said she’s concerned there isn’t strong statewide guidance for organizations — especially ones that work with children.

“Even for kids who are vaccinated, they might have younger siblings that are really high risk, and younger siblings that can't be vaccinated," Smith said.

She says the state should require the vaccine for anyone who works with kids.

Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or get in touch with reporter Liam Elder-Connors @lseconnors

Liam is Vermont Public’s public safety reporter, focusing on law enforcement, courts and the prison system.
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