As of Friday, 2,002 of 2,847 eligible State Police employees had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine at one of the three sites set up for them, according to data obtained by The Boston Globe.
Former sheriff of Suffolk County Andrea Cabral spoke to Boston Public Radio on Thursday about concerns regarding the 845 unvaccinated members, totaling nearly one-third of eligible State Police employees.
"If you're looking to see how many people in the state police have been vaccinated, the only publicly available information about that would be for those who have been vaccinated at these specific sites," Cabral said. "What you don't know is whether or not there are troopers who have gotten their vaccinations through some other means. So the one-third unvaccinated number may not necessarily be the absolute number."
Still, Cabral said that the numbers raise questions about why there hasn't been a univeral response among troopers.
"It clearly isn't something that is mandated, although I would think there would at least be a push to say to state troopers, 'This is something you must get, because you're exposed to the public in a way that other people are not. So the threat presented to you, or that you may present to others if you're unvaccinated, is significant,'" she said. "I don't know how many people are just ideologicially opposed tot getting the vaccine, but I would think the burden should be on the person to show why they're not getting it."
Cabral is the former secretary of public safety and sheriff of Suffolk County. She is currently the CEO of Ascend.
