Some healthcare professionals still say no to the Covid-19 vaccine

Hesitation among health care workers is related to public health authorities who were hoping that front-line American workers would set an example for others.

“Get vaccinated,” said Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Biden’s Covid-19 pandemic, in a video message to healthcare providers. “Protecting ourselves and our families is important, but symbolically as important as our healthcare providers, and we are confident in the vaccine so that others in the country can follow suit.”

A January survey of 1,563 respondents by Kaiser Family Foundation researchers found that 79% of unvaccinated U.S. adults rely on doctors, nurses, or other health care providers. He says he is likely to decide. To get vaccinated.

Meanwhile, 28% of 128 healthcare professionals in the Kaiser survey said they would like to wait for how the vaccine works for others before vaccination themselves. Although they were not the most resistant group studied by the Foundation, their significant impact on whether the general public chooses to obtain the vaccine is related to public health authorities.

A wider population of vaccination skepticism studies show that people are no longer hesitant when they see others being vaccinated.

Some healthcare professionals say they have abandoned the shot for altruistic reasons and believe that others need to get it first. Some health systems have said they are having a hard time convincing female employees to get vaccinated. Lack of data on the effects of vaccines on pregnancy.. Other health care workers want to encourage others to get vaccinated, but say they are still wary of their health.

“When I was taking the first shot, I asked the two nurses who were taking it how they felt when they took the shot, and they were on the waiting side. I was a little scared. But we did, “said Charles Smith II, Chief Financial Officer of Vibrant Health in Kansas City, Kansas.

According to Patrick Sallee, CEO of Vibrant Health, about 30% of staff in the clinic system where Smith works are opposed to vaccination up to this point.

Smith said he was uncomfortable with the speed of the process and the lack of long-term data, but the news of the prevalence of more infectious viral variants made him a leap. “The healthcare industry is expected to lead other industries as this is safe and sets an example and leads,” he said. “I feel like I’m really rolling the dice.”

Smith’s wife, dentist Aniika Jackson Smith, said she was hesitant to get the vaccine because the long-term effects of the vaccine were not well known. She feels her responsibility as a health care provider to keep others from getting it, so she finally decided to promise to get her first shot in late January. Told.

“My mind hasn’t really changed,” she said. “But in order for us to get over this, people will have to be vaccinated, or we will be here forever.”

Heidi Arthur, chief campaign launcher for the Ad Council, a large-scale public service education initiative on the Covid-19 vaccine, said having healthcare workers on board was not part of the original plan. I did.

“It was amazing, a level of hesitation,” she said.

Instead of lining up healthcare professionals, the Ad Council finds that it is bringing together a group of different leaders in the industry, including Dr. Fauci, to educate other healthcare professionals about vaccines and address their concerns. I did.

For Susan Izzo, an adult nurse in Connecticut, her first hesitation was because the patient felt she deserved a vaccine before her. Eventually, her patient persuaded her to take a shot, so she was able to be healthy to protect them.

“As a healthcare professional, it’s my turn, but I didn’t feel it was my turn. I would have been happy to give up the vaccine to a 55-year-old patient who had just had a lung transplant,” she said.

Deborah Berger, chairman of the National Nurses United, the largest nurses’ union in the United States, said many nurses felt that the information about vaccines that came out during the Trump administration was politicized and whether it was safe or not. He said he wanted to learn more so that he could judge. .. Education and more information is increasing among nurses, she said.

Dawn Allen, vice president of patient services at the Huron Community Health Center in South Dakota, said that initially less than 50% of employees chose to be vaccinated. After answering questions with staff, especially regarding infertility concerns, she said that up to 76% of staff chose to be vaccinated for two weeks.

Still, some nurses say they are not going to get vaccinated.

Travel nurse Cleon Charles, who works at Covid-19 hotspots throughout the pandemic, never vaccinates despite having Covid-19 herself, and her daughter and parents vaccinate. He said he was discouraged from doing it.

She cited the general mistrust of the pharmaceutical industry, among other concerns. The death of baseball legend Hank Aaron, WHO Publicly received the Covid-19 vaccine In early January. According to medical personnel, the legend of baseball died of natural causes, but his death was taken up by vaccination opponents, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. #vaccines “on Twitter.

“I don’t want that,” Charles said. “I take chances and vitamins.”

Write to Julie Vernau [email protected]