Vaccination rates and acceptance of SARS‐CoV‐2 vaccination among U.S. emergency department health care personnel

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus responsible for COVID-19 has infected more than 25 million Americans, leading to over 420,000 deaths.1 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports over 378,000 cases of COVID-19 in US health care personnel (HCP) with 1,286 deaths.2 By summer 2020, an estimated 4.6% of academic emergency department (ED) HCP had contracted COVID-19.3 In mid-December 2020 Emergency Use Authorization COVID-19 vaccines were administered to US HCP as a priority group. The objective of this report is to describe differences in vaccination rates among various types of ED HCP at US academic medical centers and reasons for declining vaccination. We hypothesized that groups of ED HCP with differences in workplace risks might view the benefits of vaccine differently and that vaccine hesitancy would higher in people of color.