Daytona Beach, FL - Volusia Sheriff (VSO) Mike Chitwood wants his employees to get vaccinated for COVID-19 and is offering some incentives for them to do so.
Chitwood said that 241 officers across the country have died in the line of duty and 114 of them due to COVID-19 since January 2021. "I'm not going to mandate it, I want to incentivize. If you get vaccinated or been vaccinated we'll put 24 hours in your vacation bank. If you get a breakthrough case, we'll pay you while you're home in quarantine."
There have been some breakthrough cases of vaccinated people in the Volusia Sheriff's Office. Chitwood said, "Thank God, every one of them has been minor, sore throat, runny nose, body aches but nothing major." He's also had some deputies that have been hospitalized with double pneumonia that have been very worrisome. "They were very young folks who were in really good shape so this doesn't discriminate. If it's coming after you, it's coming after you."
Chitwood said he's never gotten a flu shot but when he had COVID last year, it was unlike any other time he'd been sick in his life. "It was bronchitis, double-pneumonia, and the flu on steroids. It knocked me down for the count. I don't ever want to be that sick again. When it was my turn to get vaccinated, I went."
