Due to the nature of their jobs, first responders regularly have close contact with the public, which increases their risk of contracting and spreading the coronavirus among themselves, their families and the people they are sworn to protect, experts in public health and policing said.
“They’re going to get infected, because they have more contact with people than most,” said Vincent Racaniello, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Columbia University. “It doesn’t work any other way.”
The resistance to vaccination is surprising, some said, given how the virus has battered law enforcement’s ranks since the beginning of the pandemic, and continued to do so as the delta variant has taken hold.
Covid was the leading cause of line-of-duty deaths last year, killing at least 182 officers, according to the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund, which tracks such deaths. That’s nearly double the number killed by gun violence and vehicle crashes combined. At least 133 officers have died of covid so far this year, according to the organization.
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