Health Care Workers are Refusing Vaccination at a Higher Rate than the General Population

Despite an abundance of vaccine, health care workers are refusing to be vaccinated, sometimes at rates exceeding 50% of the workforce.

U.S. health care workers were slated to be first in line to receive COVID-19 vaccinations but many are outright refusing to take it.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said that about 60 percent of the nursing home workers in his state have turned down the vaccine. 

California and Texas are experiencing high rates of health care workers abstaining from vaccination as well.

The Los Angeles Times reported that hospital and public officials in Riverside, California, are stuck trying to determine how to allocate a surplus of unused vaccine after nearly 50% of the workers had refused to take it.

At St. Elizabeth Community Hospital in Tehama County, fewer than half of the 700 hospital workers eligible for the vaccine were willing to take the shot when it was offered. Also, at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center located in Mission Hills, California, one in five frontline nurses and doctors have declined the shot.

Between 20% and 40% of Los Angeles County frontline workers who were offered the vaccine also refused.

In Texas, NPR reported that half the nurses at Houston Memorial Medical Center would not get the vaccine, many citing political reasons for not taking it. 

A recent survey released by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 29% of healthcare workers are “vaccine hesitant,” higher than the 27% figure representing the general population.

Survey respondents said a primary reason was concern of how the development of the vaccine was influenced by politics.

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