Abstract
Vaccination hesitancy is a threat to herd immunity. Healthcare workers (HCWs) play a key role in promoting Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination in the general population. We therefore aimed to provide data on COVID-19 vaccination acceptance/hesitancy among German HCWs. For this exploratory, cross-sectional study, an online survey was conducted in February 2021. The survey included 54 items on demographics; previous vaccination behavior; trust in vaccines, physicians, the pharmaceutical industry and health politics; fear of adverse effects; assumptions regarding the consequences of COVID-19; knowledge about vaccines; and information seeking behavior. Odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated and chi-square tests were performed. Four thousand five hundred surveys were analyzed. The overall vaccination acceptance was 91.7%. The age group ≤20 years showed the lowest vaccination acceptance. Factors associated with vaccination hesitancy were lack of trust in authorities and pharmaceutical companies. Attitudes among acquaintances were associated with vaccination hesitancy too. Participants with vaccination hesitancy more often obtained information about COVID-19 vaccines via messenger services or online video platforms and underperformed in the knowledge test. We found high acceptance amongst German HCWs. Several factors associated with vaccination hesitancy were identified which could be targeted in HCW vaccination campaigns.
Highlights
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is one of the biggest healthcare challenges in history
Increased vaccine hesitancy was found in participants who believed that financial profit is more important for the pharmaceutical industry than the safety of their products in general (somewhat or totally agreed: 197/663 (29.7%), somewhat or totally disagreed: 78/2713 (2.9%), p < 0.001) and the safety of COVID-19 vaccines (214/609 (35.1%) vs. 76/2854 (2.7%), p < 0.001)
The number of correct answers in the knowledge test was significantly associated with the frequency of vaccine hesitancy (Figure 7, Table S5)
Summary
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is one of the biggest healthcare challenges in history. It has been estimated that a pandemic spread could be stopped if more than 67% of the population acquire immunity by either vaccination or infection [1]. Allowing uncontrolled infection would cause increased morbidity and mortality and an unjustifiable strain on healthcare systems [2]. Even mild to moderate COVID19 infections might lead to long-term health consequences [3] and individual financial losses [4]. Large scale population-wide vaccination programs are the preferred approach to stop the pandemic. Vaccine hesitancy is a global barrier to this strategy and is rated among the top ten threats worldwide [5,6]
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