COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance Among Health Care Workers in the United States

Background: Acceptance of any COVID-19 vaccine is an important challenge to address and will play a major role in combating the pandemic. Healthcare workers (HCWs) are amongst the first group to receive the vaccination, so it is important to consider their attitudes about COVID-19 vaccination to better address barriers to widespread vaccination acceptance. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study to assess the attitude of HCWs toward the COVID-19 vaccination. Data was collected between October 7th and November 9th, 2020. We received 4080 responses out of which 3479 were complete responses and were included in the final analysis. Results: 36% of respondents were willing to take the vaccine as soon as it became available while 56% were not sure or would wait to review more data. Vaccine acceptance increased with increasing age, education, and income level. Lower acceptance was noted in females (31%), Black (10%), Hispanic (30%) and conservative/republican (21%) HCWs, and those working in a rural setting (26%). In the multinomial regression model, direct medical care providers and those with heart disease and cancer had a lower likelihood of waiting to review than accepting vaccines. Safety (69%), effectiveness (69%) and rapidity of development/approval (74%) were noted as the most common concerns regarding the COVID-19 vaccine in our survey. Conclusion: Acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine is low, with the majority of healthcare workers choosing to wait to review more data before deciding. Overall attitude toward vaccination was positive but specific concerns regarding the COVID-19 vaccine are prevalent. Differences in vaccine acceptance were noted along lines of social determinants of health which should be addressed to avoid magnifying health disparities.