Data compiled by the Center for Construction Research and Training continues to show a high resistance among construction workers to getting a covid vaccine.
According to statistics compiled by the Silver Spring, Maryland-based group, less than 20% of workers in other industries have indicated that they are hesitant to get a vaccine. But that figure currently stands at 41.8% for construction workers.
Even though that number has remained fairly steady throughout the summer, it is somewhat lower than the nearly 48% of construction workers this winter who expressed the same opinion.
The center, which is a part of the larger Center to Protect Workers’ Rights, has also crunched numbers on a state-by-state basis showing that currently 53% of all construction workers in Arizona are vaccinated, along with 63% in Colorado.
Just under 58% of construction workers in Texas are also now vaccinated. There were no available figures for New Mexico.
While more than 50% of construction workers in the states of the East, South, and far West have been vaccinated, the numbers remain generally lower in the Midwest, with only 44.7% of Iowa construction workers thus far vaccinated and 48.3% in Ohio.
The latest survey results also indicate that a distrust of the government was cited as the number one reason, with a 60% response rate, why many construction workers continue to resist getting a vaccine.
Concerns that the vaccine might prove ineffective was cited by 30.4% of respondents, down from nearly 37% in early August.
The numbers come as President Biden has issued an executive order mandating that all federal employees must be vaccinated, an order expected to impact at least 100 million people.
By Garry Boulard
