SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – In some parts of the country, a large number of health professionals have rejected the COVID-19 vaccine, raising concerns about the launch and the prospect of vaccine hesitation.
However, in San Diego County, available data suggest low rates of refusal among frontline health care professionals, although in some cases health care providers are collecting their numbers in a way that makes them difficult to assess.
Refusal rates among healthcare professionals in some southern California counties have garnered significant attention in recent weeks. The director of the Orange County health agency said that about 30% of health workers in that county have so far refused the vaccine. It is estimated that 50% of health professionals in Riverside County have declined.
Since health professionals face the greatest risks of COVID-19 and are the highest priority for vaccination, refusals in these rates may imply distrust with the vaccine. But San Diego County health experts have warned that the refusal data is generally more complex than it appears. The numbers can be inflated by employees who postponed the vaccine instead of categorically denying it, or by employees who received the vaccine elsewhere.
In some cases, health professionals delay the vaccine because they have already taken COVID-19.
“We don’t need to target the vaccine to people who are already theoretically immune. So our policy has been, along with the CDC, that you can postpone these people for 90 days, ”said Dr. Christian Ramers, assistant medical director at San Diego Family Health Centers.
Among those who are hesitant, there is a spectrum. A national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation last month found that 15% of healthcare professionals fell into the most skeptical category, saying they would “definitely not” get the vaccine.
“Hesitation as a whole is not a thing. It is not an antivax thing, ”said Dr. Ramers.
Ramers said in his own clinic, virtually none of the front-line health professionals who interact with patients has refused the vaccine. He said the number of refusals has increased among back office personnel and those working at home.
Some women expressed concern about the vaccine because they were pregnant or planning to become pregnant, Ramers said. Pregnant women were not expressly enrolled in the Moderna or Pfizer trials, although some participants became pregnant during the study.
Ramers said that after discussing the risks and benefits of the vaccine with the team individually, many pregnant women chose to get the vaccine.
ABC 10News surveyed some of the largest health care providers in San Diego County.
Some providers, such as Sharp Healthcare, said they did not track the number of direct refusals. This week, Sharp said 75 percent of its healthcare professionals were vaccinated. Sharp vaccinated 16,200 workers among 19,000 employees and 2,700 affiliated doctors.
Scripps Health said it has vaccinated 67 percent of its employees so far, or 14,449 of its 21,559 employees. The other 33% have not yet responded.
“Failure to respond can mean a number of different things, like getting the vaccine elsewhere, wanting more information, wanting to wait longer or being pregnant,” said Scripps public relations manager Stephen Carpowich.
UC San Diego Health said that of the approximately 13,000 health workers who received the vaccine, 72 percent received the first dose. Only four percent declined. Another 6% postponed for several reasons, including vacation or pregnancy.
The remaining 18% were scheduled for a vaccination or had not yet responded.
Health experts suspect that the rate of decline in San Diego County among healthcare professionals is just a single digit.
“This is an acceptance rate of 95, 98 percent of the initial health workers who offered the vaccine,” said Dr. Ramers. “And we are the ones who care for these patients and know how bad this disease can be.
He said that anyone who is reluctant to get the vaccine should talk to their doctor about their individual risk factors.