High Burden of COVID-19 among Unvaccinated Law Enforcement Officers and Firefighters

  1. Alberto J. Caban-Martinez
  2. Manjusha Gaglani
  3. Lauren E.W. Olsho
  4. Lauren Grant
  5. Natasha Schaefer-Solle
  6. Paola Louzado-Feliciano
  7. Harmony L. Tyner
  8. Sarang K. Yoon
  9. Allison L. Naleway
  10. Michael Smith
  11. Brian E. Sokol
  12. Karen Lutrick
  13. Ashley L. Fowlkes
  14. Jennifer Meece
  15. Roger Noriega
  16. Marilyn Odean
  17. Andrew L. Phillips
  18. Holly C. Groom
  19. Kempapura Murthy
  20. Laura J. Edwards
  21. Katherine D. Ellingson
  22. Young M.Yoo
  23. Alexandra Cruz
  24. Karley Respet
  25. Matthew S. Thiese
  26. Jennifer L. Kuntz
  27. Spencer Rose
  28. Louise S. Hadden
  29. Joe K. Gerald
  30. Josephine Mak
  31. Damena Gallimore-Wilson
  32. Jessica Lundgren
  33. Kurt T. Hegmann
  34. Kayan Dunnigan
  35. Meredith G. Wesley
  36. Edward J. Bedrick
  37. Julie Mayo Lamberte
  38. John M. Jones
  39. Angela Hunt
  40. Matthew M. Bruner
  41. Kimberly Groover
  42. Preeta K. Kutty
  43. Addison C. Testoff
  44. Lindsay B. LeClair
  45. Jini M. Etolue
  46. Mark G. Thompson
  47. Jefferey L. Burgess

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Abstract

Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs), firefighters, and other first responders are at increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to healthcare personnel but have relatively low COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Resistance to COVID-19 vaccine mandates among first responders has the potential to disrupt essential public services and threaten public health and safety. Using data from the HEROES-RECOVER prospective cohorts, we report on the increased illness burden of COVID-19 among unvaccinated first responders. From January to September 2021, first responders contributed to weekly active surveillance for COVID-19-like illness (CLI). Self-collected respiratory specimens collected weekly, irrespective of symptoms, and at the onset CLI were tested by Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) assay for SARS-CoV-2. Among 1415 first responders, 17% were LEOs, 68% firefighters, and 15% had other first responder occupations. Unvaccinated (41%) compared to fully vaccinated (59%) first responders were less likely to believe COVID-19 vaccines are very or extremely effective (17% versus 54%) or very or extremely safe (15% versus 54%). From January through September 2021, among unvaccinated LEOs, the incidence of COVID-19 was 11.9 per 1,000 person-weeks (95%CI=7.0-20.1) compared to only 0.6 (95%CI=0.2-2.5) among vaccinated LEOs. Incidence of COVID-19 was also higher among unvaccinated firefighters (9.0 per 1,000 person-weeks; 95%CI=6.4-12.7) compared to those vaccinated (1.8 per 1,000; 95%CI=1.1-2.8). Once they had laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, unvaccinated first responders were sick for a mean±SD of 14.7±21.7 days and missed a mean of 38.0±46.0 hours of work. These findings suggest that state and local governments with large numbers of unvaccinated first responders may face major disruptions in their workforce due to COVID-19 illness.

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  1. Version published to 10.1101/2021.11.24.21266396v2 on medRxiv
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.11.24.21266396: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Ethicsnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.11.24.21266396v1 on medRxiv