Many skilled nursing staff not vaccinated against COVID-19
Researchers found that a large percentage of staff in skilled nursing facilities with access to a COVID-19 vaccination clinic have not been vaccinated, raising concerns about vaccine hesitancy.
Writing in MMWR, Radhika Gharpure, DVM, MPH, an epidemiologist and member of the CDC’s COVID-19 Response Team, and colleagues noted a long list of papers describing vaccine hesitancy among staff in long term care facilities (LTCFs), including a survey from November in which just 45% of respondents said they were willing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine right away and 24% said they would “consider it in the future.”
Historically, influenza vaccine uptake among LTCF staff also has been an issue, even though most older adults believe LTCF staff should be vaccinated.
“Ensuring long-term care facility staff have access to COVID-19 vaccination — and confidence in the safety and effectiveness of these vaccines — is a public health priority,” Gharpure told Healio. “We know that vaccine hesitancy in general — not just specific to COVID-19 vaccination — is higher among LTCF staff than other health care personnel.”
Gharpure and colleagues evaluated COVID-19 vaccine distribution in LCTFs during the first month of the CDC’s Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care Program. They estimated the number of eligible staff and residents enrolled in skilled nursing facilities using both census information from the National Healthcare Safety Network and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Payroll-Based Journal. They included staff and residents who had access to at least one vaccination clinic during the first month of the CDC program between Dec. 18, 2020, and Jan. 17, 2021.
Among 11,460 skilled nursing facilities that had at least one vaccination clinic, an approximate median of 77.8% (interquartile range [IQR] = 61.3%-93.1%) of residents and 37.5% (IQR = 23.2%-56.8%) of staff received one or more COVID-19 vaccine doses, according to Gharpure and colleagues.
“Data from influenza would indicate that vaccinating personnel in order to protect the patients is easily as important — and often more important — than vaccinating the residents themselves,” Infectious Disease News Editorial Board Member William Schaffner, MD, professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told Healio. “Recognizing this will be very important for taking this on as a major responsibility for the good of all the residents.”
Gharpure noted that rates of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among health care personnel are “concerning,” and that the CDC is currently devising ways to address “barriers and challenges” to vaccination. She also said that the rate of vaccination included in this study may have been influenced by the winter holidays, which may have reduced facility occupancy.
“Vaccination coverage might have increased with subsequent clinics conducted at the facilities,” Gharpure said. “However, the data in this MMWR do not account for the reasons behind the vaccination rates, so further research is needed.”
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