COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Healthcare Providers

Vaccine hesitancy among healthcare providers can compromise public confidence in vaccination during the ongoing COVID-19 global epidemic and increase susceptibility to life-threatening disease. We sought to investigate predictors of openness to vaccination among healthcare workers who choose not to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to explore potential solutions.

Physicians, physician assistants, and nurses who chose not to be vaccinated were surveyed to decipher reasons for vaccine refusal and personal loss due to the virus along with demographic variables. Multivariate logistic regression analysis evaluated whether provider role, parenthood, and death of family or friends were associated with strong versus relative vaccine refusal.

The predominant reasons for vaccine hesitancy in this cohort of health care workers who had access to, but chose not to be vaccinated (n=500) were a concern for vaccine side effects (69.6%) and the belief that the vaccines are inadequately studied (61.6%). Being a physician, a parent, and having no experience of death in the family or friends had 2.64 times (95% CI: 1.65-4.23, p < 0.001), 1.72 times (95% CI: 1.05-2.81, p = 0.032), and 1.70 times (95% CI: 1.06-2.72, p = 0.028) the odds of strong vaccine refusal, respectively. Older age (35 and up) respondents were 1.83 times (95% CI: 1.24-2.68, p = 0.002) more likely to be open to vaccination.