San Diego's fire chief got his COVID-19 vaccine on New Year's Eve in the hopes of setting an example for the city’s 940-plus sworn firefighters.
NBC 7 Investigates has learned a surprising number of the men and women who are often the first to treat patients with the virus are choosing not to vaccinate against it.
The FDA authorized both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines as safe and effective, but stopped short of approval, since neither company yet has enough long-term data. And that gives some firefighters pause. San Diego Fire-Rescue officials said that 167 of the department's 943 sworn firefighters turned down the vaccine. That means more than 17%, or nearly 1 in 5 firefighters, chose not to get the coronavirus vaccine.
Conner said that everyone should pay attention to how many firefighters are saying no to the vaccine -- and why -- because this is likely a test drive of what will happen when the vaccine is rolled out to the general population.