Blumenthal Praises Efforts to Vaccinate Connecticut Veterans

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – During today’s Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs hearing regarding vaccines for veterans, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) praised the work of the VA Connecticut Healthcare System to vaccinate the Connecticut veterans enrolled in the VA system, while urging the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to ensure that all veterans and their caregivers are able to access the vaccine.

“I first want to say how proud I am to know that Connecticut really I think is at the forefront of these efforts to vaccinate veterans. In Connecticut, 47% of our veterans have received a first dose and 23% a second dose which is far ahead of the national average. I’m also pleased to say that 77% of our veteran employees have been vaccinated and so they are protected. I think that this kind of record is due to real leadership,” said Blumenthal.

Blumenthal questioned Dr. Richard Stone, Acting Under Secretary for Health, Veterans Health Administration, regarding how the VA can increase access to the COVID-19 vaccine for caregivers, “I think one of the reasons why veterans may not come for a vaccine is that their spouse or caregiver is not going to get it as well. And either because they depend on that person for transportation and advice or for some other reason, they may be hesitant. I know you’ve answered the question about what can be done to provide the vaccine to those caregivers, the non-veterans, who provide for our veterans, and that you would need additional statutory authority to do so, is that correct?”

“We have 200,000 elderly frail veterans that we’re helping in a home. About 20,000 we can vaccinate their caregiver, 180,000 we can’t and that’s the kind of discussion that we need to have of how we get those additional authorities in order to protect that veteran and their caregiver,” said Stone.

Blumenthal pledged his support in those efforts, “I offer my support and help, whatever we can do to expand that authority if necessary. I think there will be strong support for it.”

The full transcript of Blumenthal’s remarks and responses is available below.

Senator Blumenthal: Thanks Mr. Chairman. I apologize if I cover ground you’ve already done, but I first want to say how proud I am to know that Connecticut really I think is at the forefront of these efforts to vaccinate veterans. In Connecticut, 47% of our veterans have received a first dose and 23% a second dose which is far ahead of the national average. I’m also pleased to say that 77% of our veteran employees have been vaccinated and so they are protected. I think that this kind of record is due to real leadership. Obviously you’re trying to inspire that kind of leadership at the national level, but we need more aggressive leadership at the local level to counter the kind of misinformation and hesitancy that is found among certain populations and as well to provide vaccinations to caregivers and spouses and family members who live with our veterans, because I think one of the reasons why veterans may not come for a vaccine is that their spouse or caregiver is not going to get it as well. And either because they depend on that person for transportation and advice or for some other reason, they may be hesitant. I know you’ve answered the question about what can be done to provide the vaccine to those caregivers, the non-veterans, who provide for our veterans, and that you would need additional statutory authority to do so, is that correct?

Dr. Stone: For the most part, yes. It’s a bit of a nuanced answer and I apologize for that. For those families that are engaged in our subsidized or reimbursed family caregiver program, that caregiver program we do have authority to give vaccine and have vaccinated more than 2,000 family caregivers. What we don’t have authority for is the rest of the population that are not on subsidies and in those subsidies and it’s a nuanced complex answer and it’s not very satisfactory sir. We need some additional authorities to get to the rest of that population. We have 200,000 elderly frail veterans that we’re helping in a home. About 20,000 we can vaccinate their caregiver, 180,000 we can’t and that’s the kind of discussion that we need to have of how we get those additional authorities in order to protect that veteran and their caregiver.

Blumenthal: Well I offer my support and help, whatever we can do to expand that authority if necessary. I think there will be strong support for it and as to the younger veterans, are they more hesitant, are toy less likely to take the vaccine. Do you notice any difference in age groupings as to that hesitancy?

Stone: I’m going to defer to Dr. Kim on this.

Dr. Paul Kim: Yeah, I will maybe speak to the focus group we did with veterans that included veterans of younger and older age and I think what we saw you know, I think reflects maybe what we see in non-VA surveys from last year of hesitancy of all age groups unfortunately. I think there are you know, I think it falls along racial and ethnic lines actually where blacks and African Americans and Hispanics have more hesitancy compared to whites and that was played out by age and I know it was a focus group but I think just really parallels what we see in larger national surveys, so I think our efforts to communicate really reach across ages to make sure that we get the messaging across the science and that we can trust these vaccines and they’re safe and effective.

Blumenthal: And then finally if you had to pick out of a community one person one type of person to overcome that hesitancy, to recruit people to take the vaccine, would it be a faith leader, would it be a coach, who would you chose?

Stone: It would be your provider, your nurse practitioner, your PA, or your physician seems to be someone most effective.

Blumenthal: Someone with medical credentials to talk about medicine makes a lot of sense, right?

Stone: And sir that’s exactly why we think we’ve done so well with this is we’ve had this proactive outreach to our communities, especially our communities of color and we think that’s why we’ve erased disparities in the population that other parts of the American health care system are seeing, and we are trusted because of what Dr. Patterson said, we are trusted because we are in those communities.

Blumenthal: And again, the people who are most persuasive and compelling on an issue of science or medicine are the people who have the credentials of medical doctors or nurses or scientists who can attest to the efficacy and safety of the vaccine?

Stone: Yes sir.

Blumenthal: Thank you. Thanks Mr. Chairman.

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