Every day, more Americans become eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, but almost half of all frontline health professionals remain unvaccinated, although they have priority access to the first available doses.
Only 52% of all frontline health professionals say they have even received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to a new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Washington Post.
This leaves 48% of health professionals at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19, including doctors, nurses, housekeepers and home health aides, who are totally unprotected and vulnerable to the virus.
Researchers interviewed more than 1,300 health professionals whose jobs expose them to patients or body fluids, putting them at greater risk than others of contracting COVID-19, which more than a year after the pandemic infected nearly 30 million Americans and killed more than 500,000.
Side effects concern some
Three different vaccines that have been shown to be effective against COVID-19 are currently on the market and are administered to a large part of the United States population. Still, clearly, there have been gaps in distribution, as well as in the willingness of individuals to be vaccinated against the virus.
Among health professionals who have not been vaccinated, 12% said they have not yet decided whether to accept an injection in the arm. Another 18% said they do not plan to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, citing concerns about side effects and novelties of vaccines, according to the survey results.
Employers also play an important role in helping employees access doses. Self-employed workers report lower vaccination rates.
More than 8 out of 10 vaccinated health professionals who are not self-employed claim to have received the COVID-19 vaccine from their employer. Meanwhile, only 1 in 5 vaccinated health workers living in patients’ homes say they have received the COVID-19 vaccine from their local health department.
Vaccine skepticism among black Americans
Racial disparities are also evident in vaccination rates among healthcare professionals.
Black health professionals, in particular, have been reluctant to get vaccinated, with 53% of black health professionals on the front line saying they are not confident that the COVID-19 vaccine is safe. This remains constant in the general population – 47% of black adults who are not necessarily health professionals feel the same, according to the survey.
There has been a historic distrust of the medical community on the part of many African Americans, stemming from past abuses that can echo today. They include experimental operations on enslaved black women in the 1840s, as well as the infamous Tuskegee Institute experiments in the 1930s that examined the progression of syphilis in black men who were tricked into believing they were being treated for the disease.
US employers has the legal right to require the vaccine as a condition of employment, however, most are choosing to offer bonuses and other incentives to employees who are assaulted, rather than enforcing compliance.
Experts say the government, community leaders and even private companies must be part of the effort to help individuals overcome hesitation in vaccination so that the United States can obtain collective immunity.
The Biden administration American Rescue Plan, sanctioned last week, will help finance the vaccine’s launch by the states, as well as other responses from COVID-19.
Specifically, the package provides $ 7.5 billion to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to spend on vaccination efforts. Part of the money will be spent on donations to states to improve the distribution and administration of the COVID-19 vaccination.