Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021
Are substantial numbers of US health care workers still unvaccinated against COVID-19?
While the vaccination rate among health care workers continues to increase, a significant share remains unvaccinated.
The Covid States Project, a collaborative effort by researchers from Northeastern, Harvard, Northwestern, and Rutgers, recently surveyed more than 20,000 individuals from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. They found that as of July, 27% of health care workers had not been vaccinated.
Researchers noted that 15% of health care workers reported being vaccine resistant and warned that “absent mandates, most of the currently unvaccinated health care workers will remain unvaccinated, potentially fueling outbreaks in health care facilities.”
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission stated in May that anti-discrimination laws do not prevent employers from requiring their employees to be vaccinated. Since then, many workplaces, including health care facilities, have implemented vaccine mandates; some have fired workers for refusing.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- Northeastern University Healthcare workers are getting vaccinated, but more still need convincing, US survey finds
- US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission What you should know about COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and other EEO Laws
- Society for Human Resource Management Employers react to workers who refuse vaccination as COVID-19 cases rise
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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
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