Nearly one-third of healthcare workers in U.S. hospitals are still not vaccinated against Covid-19, according to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as tensions escalate over a looming—and contested—nationwide mandate that officials worry will leave the sector with a shortage of critical workers.
As of September 15, 70% of healthcare workers were fully vaccinated against Covid-19, according to the CDC study of more than 3 million personnel across more than 2,000 U.S. hospitals published in the American Journal of Infection Control.
Rates varied based on the type of hospital, the researchers found, with the highest vaccination rates found in children’s hospitals where 77% of workers have both doses.
Critical access hospitals had the lowest vaccination rate, with 64% of workers fully vaccinated, the researchers found. Vaccination rates also differed by location, with healthcare staff in metropolitan counties (71%) having higher vaccination rates than those in rural counties (65%).
Vaccine uptake also varied dramatically over time, the researchers found, jumping from 36% to 60% in the four months between January and April—a 24 point jump—but taking five months to reach 70% by September.
Half of that jump (5%) in vaccination happened in the month between August and September, something the authors said could be due to the spread of the delta coronavirus variant or mandates in some jurisdictions. READ MORE
