A new survey conducted by the Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation has found that 48% of frontline health workers have not yet gotten a dose of the COVID vaccine.
The survey included more than 1320 health workers who were asked questions about their vaccination online or through phone interviews.
About 68% of the health workers, who are responsible for diagnosis and treatment, including doctors and nurses, reported having received a COVID-19 vaccine, according to Medscape Medical News.
Around 44% of health workers who are indulged in administrative duties and 37% of those who assist with patient care reported having been vaccinated.
More than 65% of hospital workers and 64% of those in hospital outpatient clinics said they had been vaccinated.
Overall, the survey found that 52% of the participants had received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine. “The percentages of those vaccinated were higher among men than in women and higher among whites than among Blacks or Hispanics,” according to Medscape.
Of those who did not get a vaccine, some said they had scheduled their vaccination or planned to get vaccinated but had not scheduled it yet. About 12% said they had not decided whether to get vaccinated, while 18% said they did not plan to receive a vaccine.
Most of the health workers who did not get vaccinated were concerned about potential side effects and the newness of the vaccine.
In an interview with Medscape, Dr. Halee Fischer-Wright, President and CEO of the Medical Group Management Association, said the politicization of the pandemic could be one of the reasons why so many health workers have declined to be vaccinated.
She said, “It reinforced for Black and brown communities their mistrust of the government. Then, that government created Operation Warp Speed, which was terrible branding, because it connected with the fears that this vaccine was produced without all due care and safety.”
“In addition, this population has a historical reason to be distrustful of the medical community and of the government,” Dr. Fischer-Wright added. “All of that has played into why we see a low immunization rate in those populations, even if they’re healthcare workers.”
Dr. Fischer-Wright pointed out that hospitals prioritized their own workers when they initially administered the vaccines that they received from the federal government, explaining that only recently have they started to transfer their excess supplies to physician practices in the community.
“These factors largely explain why a significantly higher percentage of hospital employees than of physician office staff have been vaccinated so far,” she said.
She also said that doctors can serve as role models by getting vaccinated themselves and they should do their part to educate their own staff.
Dr. Fischer-Wright, however, noted, “There’s a little bit of reluctance to confront people about their tightly held beliefs.” The article was published Friday on Medscape Medical News.
