Attitudes towards Anti-SARS-CoV2 Vaccination among Healthcare Workers: Results from a National Survey in Italy.

Francesco Di Gennaro,Lorenzo Cerruti,Davide Fiore Bavaro,Massimo Fantoni,Rita Murri,Annalisa Saracino,Francesco Vladimiro Segala,Amina Abdulle

doi:10.3390/v13030371

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has afflicted tens of millions of people, fostering and unprecedent effort in vaccine development and distribution. Healthcare workers (HCW) play a key role in vaccine promotion and patient guidance, and it is likely that hesitancy among this population will have a major impact on the adoption of a successful immunization policy. To investigate HCW attitudes towards anti-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) vaccination, we developed an anonymous online cross-sectional survey. 1723 Italian HCW responded. Overall, 1155 (67%) intended to be vaccinated, while 443 (26%) were not sure and 125 (7%) declared refusal. In multivariate analysis, factors associated with hesitancy were using Facebook as the main information source and being a non-physician HCW, while predictors of acceptance included younger age, being in close contact with high-risk groups and having received flu vaccination during the 2019–2020 season. Reasons for hesitancy included lack of trust in vaccine safety (85%) and receiving little (78%) or conflicting (69%) information about vaccines. According to our results, adequate investment in vaccine education for healthcare personnel appears to be urgently needed, prioritizing non-physicians and information quality spread through social media. We hope that our data could help governments and policy-makers to target communication in the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

Highlights

Introduction published maps and institutional affilIn January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the outbreak of a respiratory syndrome caused by a novel coronavirus in the province of Wuhan, China
Among all healthcare workers participating in the survey, 378 (22%) were health professionals, 337 (20%) were specialized Medical Doctors, 258 (15%) were medical residents (n = 437, 41%) and 205 (12%) were from a primary care setting, either General Practitioners (n = 135; 8%) or General Practitioner trainees (n = 40; 4%), whilst 544 (32%) were medical school graduates with no further specific educational path
Twenty-six percent of the participants indicated uncertainty and 125 Healthcare workers (HCW) (7%) declared that they would refuse to be vaccinated. This finding is striking, in our view, considering that the survey was administered at the verge of the Italian “second wave” [22], and that it was administered to professional figures who directly experienced the effects of COVID-19 pandemic [23]

Summary

Introduction

In January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the outbreak of a respiratory syndrome caused by a novel coronavirus in the province of Wuhan, China. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2). Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) have proven effective in suppressing the pandemic [4]—having showed to impact on basic reproduction number (Ro) [5,6]. They contributed to trigger an economic and job crisis worldwide [7]. Effective, mask wearing, social distancing and other NPIs have the paradoxical consequence to prevent the population achieving immunization from the disease, allowing the recurrence of additional waves of infection [8]

Results

Discussion

Conclusion