SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – In some pockets of the country, a large number of health workers have refused the COVID-19 vaccine, raising concerns about the launch and the prospect of hesitation for the vaccine.
However, in San Diego County, the available data suggest low rejection rates among frontline health workers, although in some cases health care providers collect their numbers in a way that makes them difficult to assess.
Denial rates among health care workers in some Southern California counties have garnered significant attention in recent weeks. The director of the health agency in Orange County said that about 30% of health workers in that county have so far refused the vaccine. It is estimated that 50 percent of health workers in Riverside County refused.
As health care workers face the highest risks due to COVID-19 and are at the highest priority for vaccination, refusals to these rates may imply distrust of the vaccine. But health experts in San Diego County have warned that refusal data are often more complex than they seem. The numbers may be inflated by staff who have delayed the vaccine, rather than outright denying it, or by employees who have received the vaccination elsewhere.
In some cases, health care workers delay the vaccine because they already had COVID-19.
“There is no need to target the vaccine to people who are already theoretically immune. So our policy, along with the CDC, is that you can postpone those people for 90 days, ”said Dr. Christian Ramers, assistant medical director of the San Diego Family Health Centers.
Among those who hesitate, there is a spectrum. A national survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation last month found that 15% of health workers fell into the category of the most skeptical, saying they “certainly won’t get the vaccine.”
“Hesitation as a whole is not a thing. It’s not an anti-vax thing, “said Dr. Ramers.
Ramers said at his own clinic that virtually none of the front-line medical staff who interacted with the patients refused the vaccine. He said the number of refusals had increased among the staff behind the office and those working from home.
Some women have expressed concern about the vaccine because they were pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant, Dr. Ramers said. Pregnant women were not explicitly enrolled in the Moderna or Pfizer studies, although a few participants became pregnant during the study.
Ramers said that after discussing the risks and benefits of the vaccine with her staff, many pregnant women opted to get the vaccine.
ABC 10News surveyed some of the largest health care providers in San Diego County.
Some providers, such as Sharp Healthcare, have said they do not track the number of direct refusals. As of this week, Sharp said 75% of its health care workers had been vaccinated. Sharp vaccinated 16,200 workers out of 19,000 employees and 2,700 affiliated physicians.
Scripps Health said it has so far vaccinated 67% of its workers, or 14,449 of its 21,559 employees. The other 33 percent had not yet responded.
“A non-response can mean a number of different things, such as getting the vaccine elsewhere, wanting more information, wanting to wait longer, or getting pregnant,” said Stephen Carpowich, Scripps’ public relations manager.
UC San Diego Health said about 13,000 health care workers who offered the vaccine, 72% received a first dose. Only four percent had dropped. Another 6 percent postponed for various reasons, including vacation or pregnancy.
The remaining 18 percent were scheduled for a vaccination or have not yet responded.
Health experts suspect that San Diego County’s rate of decline among health care workers is low.
“This is an acceptance rate of 95.98 percent from the initial medical workers who provided the vaccine,” said Dr. Ramers. “And we are the ones who see these patients and we know how serious this disease can be.”
He said that anyone who does not want to receive the vaccine should talk to their doctor about individual risk factors.