Although nursing home residents and their caregivers were considered a priority for COVID-19 vaccination, only 38% of nursing home staff accepted vaccines when they were offered, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed Monday -market.
Anecdotal reports have been circulating for weeks that members of the nursing home staff were refusing vaccination offers, but these are the first data nationwide.
“These findings show that we have a lot of work to do to increase confidence and also really understand the barriers to vaccination among this population,” said Dr. Radhika Gharpure, lead author of the study and a member of the CDC Vaccine Task Force.
The report cited data from previous research to suggest why officials have refused vaccines.
Many raised concerns about the vaccine’s side effects. Others said they did not want to be the first to receive the vaccines, which were first authorized in December. Some said they did not trust the government or mentioned false claims about the shots.
It is also possible, said Gharpure, that some people were not vaccinated because they were not working when the vaccines were distributed or because they worked in multiple facilities and were counted in only one.
Residents, however, have accepted vaccines much more, with 78% receiving at least one injection, according to the new report, which examined vaccination rates at more than 11,000 long-term care facilities across the country between December 18 and January 17th.
Any extra doses of the vaccine are being returned to the states, although there are no figures at the national level to determine how much is being returned, said Dr. Ruth Link-Gelles, co-author of the report and leader of the CDC for its pharmaceutical partnership for the Health Care Program. long term.
The Trump administration initiated a pharmaceutical partnership with drugstore chains CVS and Walgreens, which agreed to make three visits to each participating health facility, vaccinating as many people as possible the first two times and providing the second necessary dose for subsequent visits.
Vaccines are provided free of charge with pharmacies that charge private insurers and Medicaid and Medicare for administration fees.
More team members are signing up for injections on the second and third visits, which suggests that the hesitation may be easing at least a little, Link-Gelles said.
This is in line with the experience of drugstore chains.
“Overall, we are seeing greater acceptance by team members on our second visits,” said Mike DeAngelis, senior director of corporate communications at CVS.
The lack of information about vaccines may explain part of the hesitation, the report said.
The Trump administration promised for months that it would launch a public information campaign on vaccines, but it never materialized.
A specific “toolkit” for a nursing home became available at the end of last year, at about the same time that vaccines became available. The Medicare and Medicaid Service Centers and private groups are also launching communication initiatives.
Link-Gelles said he understands that the vaccine is new and expects more people to get it because they see it working well in others.
“Hesitation, as we have seen, has been a problem not only in this group, but across the country,” she said. “Other data showed that as people become more comfortable with vaccines and … obviously, not seeing many very serious adverse events, these people feel more comfortable. We hope that this population will be no different.”
The acceptance of health professionals appears to be increasing in facilities that have done more to educate team members about the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.
Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, said his hospital went to great lengths to provide information to employees – both in groups and individually.
It has been worth it, he said, because they “changed the needle” of the team’s opinion, from almost two-thirds hesitant at the end of last year, to 75% agreeing to receive the vaccine earlier this year.
Now, he said, they are reaching out to those who still remain hesitant, with “people on our faculty who look like them”, to try a more individual approach.
Of particular concern, he said, are false rumors that the vaccine may affect fertility. “Balderdash,” said Schaffner with the idea. “The absurdity out there is incredible.”
More: Should pregnant women get the COVID-19 vaccine? Dr. Anthony Fauci said ‘no warning signs’ in the safety data, so far.
There is no biological plausibility for concern about fertility, Schaffner said. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which use a technology called messenger RNA, do not enter the cell nucleus, so they cannot affect the cell’s genetic code.
“As soon as this messenger RNA delivers its message, it disintegrates and the body gets rid of it, so it doesn’t persist in the body,” he said.
Also rebutting rumors that the vaccine blocks fertility, Schaffner said that several hundred people in the vaccine tests, who were asked not to become pregnant while volunteering, actually did.
“So, obviously, you can get pregnant even after you’ve received the vaccine,” he said, noting that pregnant women infected with COVID-19 are more likely to have a serious outbreak of the disease.
But it is important to respect the concerns of those who are hesitant to get the vaccine, he and other experts emphasized, listening to what they say and addressing their concerns with real information.
At CommonSpirit Health, which includes 139 hospitals and more than 1,000 care facilities in 21 states, about 80% of team members have already been vaccinated or say they are likely to be vaccinated, said nurse chief Kathleen Sanford.
Sanford credits his organization’s high acceptance rate to surveys conducted to understand hesitation and efforts to educate team members. “No matter how good your education and communication are, sometimes you need to repeat yourself,” she said.
Company leaders publish photos of themselves being vaccinated, Sanford said, and many of those who initially said they wanted to “wait and see” how other people would fare with the vaccine are beginning to change their minds.
Most health centers, including nursing homes, are not demanding that staff be vaccinated against COVID-19, but they are strongly encouraging and hoping to reach flu vaccination levels, which now generally reach 90%.
About 42% of workers at Ballad Health, which serves 29 counties in northeastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia, northwestern North Carolina, signed up for an injection early, said Jamie Smith, the organization’s director of infection prevention. But until last Monday, 56% of the network’s health team had already taken the first dose.
“It’s what we expected,” said Swift. “We knew that we had people who simply wanted to wait, see how the process went and talk to their co-workers. It’s one thing to listen to national statistics, it’s another to talk to someone you work with about how he felt about being vaccinated.
For many, vaccination is surprisingly exciting, and this is also true for staff who are vaccinating their co-workers.
“For a long time we have dealt with extreme illnesses. Just being able to give the vaccine was a healing process. People just cry, ”said Swift.
She realized that there is a real change in attitude after the first people in a unit are vaccinated.
“They are health professionals on the front lines, facing a battle that not everyone sees every day. It is just the feeling of relief and hope, it energizes the whole unit when someone is vaccinated. “
Kathleen Unroe, a geriatrician and nursing home doctor, helped conduct a November survey of top health care professionals in Indiana on behalf of the state’s health department.
Their study, which was cited in the new CDC report, found that 45% of the more than 8,200 health professionals would consider being vaccinated immediately after it was made available, and another 44% were willing to consider it in the future.
Although she wants the vaccination rate to be higher, Unroe said she is encouraged by these numbers. Some want to wait until they see other people, especially people they trust, to get the vaccine safely.
“I understand,” said Unroe. “If they need time to look, I think it’s reasonable.”
Unroe said the Indiana nursing home where she works has faced a long list of challenges in the past year to deal with the pandemic.
But now, 70% of the team has been vaccinated, and she hopes that persistence, solid messages and helping people to talk about their fears will bring most of the rest.
“The vaccine offers us hope and a way out,” said Unroe. “So I think we’re going to get there.”
Elizabeth Weise contributed to this report.
Contact Karen Weintraub at [email protected].
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This article was originally published in USA TODAY: Nursing home workers reluctant to get the COVID vaccine, concluded a CDC study
Originally published