Vaccine Hesitancy

About three in 20 health care workers reported vaccine hesitancy during the initial rollout of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, according to survey results published in the American Journal of Infection Control.

New insight into the top reasons for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among underrepresented populations with rheumatic diseases was the top story in rheumatology last week.

In a survey of racial and ethnic minorities with rheumatic diseases in Alabama, the most common reasons cited for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy were fear of side effects and disease flare, according to data presented at ACR Convergence 2021.

Factors such as race, political affiliation and income played a greater role than disease-related attributes in vaccine hesitancy of patients with inflammatory bowel disease, according to a presentation at the ACG Annual Scientific Meeting.

Medical misinformation threatens public health, but physicians can combat it by improving communication with their patients, according to a speaker at the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Annual Scientific Meeting.

The federal rollout of Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years began in earnest this week, making a pediatric-sized vaccine available to millions of kids for the first time.

In this episode, Joel M. Gelfand, MD, MSCE, and Leonard H. Calabrese, DO, are joined by Carlos del Rio, MD, as they discuss the use of booster shots in the general population and in patients with underlying autoimmunity.

An HPV vaccination intervention that was implemented in schools modestly improved psychosocial vaccine-related outcomes like decision-making in adolescents, according to findings published in JAMA Network Open.

In this issue, Jonathan D. Leffert, MD, talks with labor and employment law expert Kim Leffert, who is his sister, about what health care practices can require of their employees with relation to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

LAS VEGAS – Resiliency, respect and relationships allowed the ACG to thrive during the pandemic, pushed the careers of its leaders forward and brought the association back to in-person meetings.