SHERIDAN — Sheridan Veterans Affairs Health Care System Director Pam Crowell recently raised concerns among employees after stating testing procedures required for unvaccinated employees “should be painful.”
President Joe Biden announced vaccination requirements for the federal government’s workforce at the end of July, but a large percentage of local federal employees remain unvaccinated, and officials have indicated those employees will be required to wear masks “indefinitely,” be tested for COVID-19 one to two times per week and likely face travel restrictions.
Following Crowell’s comment, an employee submitted an anonymously shared concern through a Sheridan VAHCS reporting tool.
“This makes me concerned about the decision making of our leadership to want to attempt to punish staff in order for them to ‘fall in line’ for a non-FDA approved shot,” the employee wrote of Crowell’s comment, before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the Pfizer vaccine.
Sheridan VAHCS Public Affairs and Congressional Liaison Officer Kristina Miller confirmed the authenticity of the anonymously filed concern as well as an email written by Crowell in response.
In that email, Crowell noted she is unsure what kind of testing will be required, but also indicated there will be a frequent testing requirement.
“Yes, I did say that ‘it should be painful.’ And, if you’ve been tested you know it’s painful, or at least very uncomfortable,” she wrote in the email sent to Sheridan VAHCS staff.
She went on to explain her personal concerns and risk for contracting COVID-19 and highlight other “painful” elements of the virus, such as staff having to wear N95 masks for 12-hour shifts, family members dying, coworkers becoming ill and impacts to veterans served by the Sheridan VAHCS.
“It doesn’t matter that the ‘shot’ isn’t FDA approved,” Crowell wrote in the emailed response to staff dated Aug. 20. “It’s required by the Veterans Health Administration for most employees. Additionally, I won’t be the one who makes the decision regarding what kind of testing is done. I don’t literally want it to be painful, but I’m certain it will be inconvenient.”
The directive for testing, updated Aug. 13, according to Crowell, requires vaccination for almost all personnel within the VA system.
According to Miller, the vaccine has been free and readily available for all Sheridan VAHCS employees, which includes the medical center in Sheridan and eight outpatient clinics around the state. In addition, the VA has provided two days of authorized absence so employees do not have to use sick leave if they experience adverse side effects from the shot, and the VA provides four hours of authorized absence for vaccinated employees to use whenever they want.
Despite encouragement to get vaccinated, a large percentage of Sheridan VAHCS employees remain unconvinced.
According to a tracking system available on the federal VA website, Sheridan VAHCS has delivered full vaccines — meaning both shots of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or one shot of the Johnson and Johnson shot — to 470 employees. An additional 59 individuals have received one shot of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. According to Miller, the Sheridan VAHCS has a total of 749 employees across the state. The online tally does not include employees who may have received a vaccine somewhere other than the VA system.
Considering those numbers, that means the Sheridan VAHCS currently has about 37% of its workforce that has not received a vaccine through the VA.
That percentage is about on par with other institutions tracking which of its employees receive the vaccination. For example, Sheridan Memorial Hospital officials, while not requiring vaccination of staff, said this week about 70% of its employees are vaccinated.
U.S. Forest Service employees of the Bighorn National Forest also fall under the federal government’s vaccination requirement for employees and recently were asked to attest to their vaccination status. While some were initially told the attestation would be required, Bighorn National Forest Public Affairs Officer Sara Evans Kirol said the attestation is voluntary.
“The agency is still collecting the data, but the information that is collected will not be made public,” Kirol said Friday in response to questions asked by The Sheridan Press on Monday. “The Bighorn National Forest has approximately 200 employees, including our seasonal workforce.”
Kirol also acknowledged the USFS has yet to clarify the process for testing unvaccinated employees and said the details of how employees will be tested, what types of tests will be acceptable, who will deliver the test, funding and other issues remain in development.
In response to a question about feedback received from employees regarding the vaccination requirement, Kirol said officials at the Bighorn National Forest could not speak for individual employees.
“Safety of employees and the public we serve has been our first priority during this pandemic,” Kirol said. “We encourage all employees to get vaccinated and provide a variety of employee resources to include time during their workday to travel to a vaccination site.”
Following the president’s announcement regarding the vaccine or testing mandates for federal employees, though, unions that represent federal employees had mixed reactions and many questions, according to national news reports highlighting comments from leaders of some of the unions.
Under an FAQ portion of the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force website, it is advised agencies act quickly, but “engage with employee unions at their earliest opportunity as they develop agency-specific testing plans and otherwise satisfy any applicable collective bargaining obligations under the law at the earliest opportunity, including on a post-implementation basis where appropriate.”
The Safer Federal Workforce Task Force was created by Biden as part of the White House COVID-19 Response Team. It includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Veterans Affairs, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Federal Protective Service, Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Secret Service.
In Wyoming, lawmakers have drafted legislation that would prohibit employers in the state from requiring employees to be vaccinated. That piece of legislation could be considered by the Wyoming Legislature early next year.
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