Nearly a third of health care workers in US hospitals were unvaccinated against Covid as of September, CDC study finds

• A new study from the  CDC looked at COVID-19 vaccination rates from 3.3 million workers across more than 2,000 hospitals
• As of September 2021, 70% of health care employees were fully vaccinated, meaning 30% were not
• Workers in children's hospitals had the highest vaccination rate at 77% while those in  critical access hospitals had the lowest at 64%
• Health care staff in metropolitan counties had higher vaccination rates than workers in rural counties at 71% and 65.1%, respectively

Nearly one-third of health care workers in hospitals across the U.S. are unvaccinated against COVID-19, a new study suggests.

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) looked at Covid vaccination rates from 2,000 hospitals in the nation.

They found only 70 percent of staff members have been immunized since the shots rolled out nearly one year ago.

Vaccination rates were highest among employees of children's hospitals and those working in metropolitan counties.   

'Our analysis revealed that vaccine coverage among U.S. hospital-based [health care personnel] stalled significantly after initial uptake,' said lead author Dr Hannah Reses, a member of the CDC team that conducted the analysis.

'Additional efforts are needed now to improve HCP vaccine coverage and reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission to patients and other hospital staff.' 

When the national vaccination campaign began in December 2020, health care personnel were among the first to be eligible for shots.

This is due to the risk of acquiring COVID-19 in their line of work and to lower the risk transmitting the virus to colleagues or, even worse, to patients.

Since then, vaccination rates have varied among health care professions.

At least 96 percent of doctors are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 compared to about 70 percent of staff at long-term care facilities. 

For the study, published in the American Journal of Infection Control, the team looked at data voluntarily reported to the Department of Health and Human Services Unified Hospital Data Surveillance System

Researchers looked at vaccination rates from 2,086 hospitals employing more than 3.3 million workers between January 20, 2021 and September 15, 2021.

Between January and April, vaccination rates rose from 36 percent to 60 percent.

However, they began to slow dramatically and hit just 70 percent in September 2021. meaning 30 percent of workers were unvaccinated.  

The team also looked at vaccination rates among subsets of hospitals including children's hospitals, short-term acute care hospitals (ACH), long-term ACH and critical access hospitals.

Results showed that workers in children's hospitals had the highest rate at 77 percent followed by those in short-term ACH at 70.1 percent, long-term ACH at 68.8 percent and critical access hospitals at 64 percent. 

Additionally, health care employees in metropolitan counties had higher vaccination rate than those in rural counties at 71 percent and 65.1 percent, respectively.

'Hospital-based [health care personnel] play a critical role in influencing community uptake of vaccines and are also at increased risk of both acquiring and transmitting COVID-19 in healthcare settings,' said Ann Marie Pettis, president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, in a statement.  

'The findings from this analysis suggest that vaccine mandates as well as investment in additional educational and promotional activities could help increase vaccine coverage among HCP to better protect public health.