Almost half of the employees in the health system in Poland hesitated to take boosters of the COVID-19 vaccine [Studiu]

About half of the healthcare workers who participated in a Polish study were found to be reluctant to administer COVID-19 vaccine boosters, one of the reasons for this reluctance being negative experiences with previous vaccinations.

The study, published in the journal Vaccines on 29 April examined the factors underlying reluctance to receive COVID-19 vaccine boosters among healthcare workers (HCW) in Poland. Almost 50% of the participants were identified as reluctant to reminders.

“Our study found that 42% of HCWs were hesitant about the second booster dose, while 7% reported no intention to vaccinate with additional doses.”

“As reasons for not getting vaccinated, the participants most frequently highlighted lack of time, negative experiences with previous vaccinations and immunity conferred by previous infections”.

69 health workers participated in the study: nurses, midwives, doctors, other allied health professionals and administrative staff.

At the time of enrollment, 47 had a laboratory-confirmed history of infection with COVID-19 and 31 had at least one comorbidity, a situation in which a person suffers from several diseases or medical conditions at the same time.

Over 92% of study participants received at least one vaccine booster, 50.73% of them receiving two doses. Five of the 69 health workers did not take any boosters.

“Hesitations about boosters among health professionals (doctors, nurses and midwives) were lower than among administrative staff and others. Almost 79% of doctors received two booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. However they, apart from doctors, about half of the health and health care staff in each professional group were hesitant about the second booster dose”.

“The highest number of HCWs without any recall was observed among administrative staff.”

HCW workers in the 31-40 and 41-50 age groups were found to be the most skeptical about taking the second booster dose. Also, 34 of the 69 study participants offered various reasons for their hesitancy regarding the COVID-19 booster vaccine.

Two of the nurses who did not give the booster vaccine stated that their decision was based on personal experience with the vaccines.

“They reported negative experiences with previous vaccination against COVID-19 and stated that the natural immunity developed after infection with SARS-cov-2 could protect them against COVID-19, which generally does not pose serious health risks” , the study shows.

“Responses from healthcare workers who received only one booster dose can be categorized into two themes: (i) influences arising from personal perceptions of the COVID-19 vaccine and disease prevention and (ii) issues directly related to vaccination and its safety”.

Six health care workers reported experiencing negative adverse effects after receiving previous doses of the COVID vaccine, and four had vaccine safety concerns.

In a previous study by researchers, it was found that the levels of anti-COVID antibodies among health care workers after the mandatory primary vaccine series dropped by about 90-95% within seven months of vaccination. However, “none of the healthcare workers contracted COVID-19,” the study said.

The current study was funded by the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The study authors reported no conflicts of interest.

Vaccine concerns and adverse effects

Other studies have also explored vaccination hesitancy among healthcare workers. A March 2023 study of healthcare workers in Cameroon and Nigeria found that reluctance to administer the COVID-19 vaccine was “high and generally driven by the perceived risk of COVID-19 disease and of COVID-19 vaccines on personal health, distrust in the COVID-19 vaccines and uncertainty regarding the acceptability of vaccines by colleagues”.

An April 2022 study found that “concern about the side effects of vaccines” and “the belief that vaccines are insufficiently studied” were some of the main reasons for reluctance to get vaccinated among health care workers.

A May 2022 review in BMJ Global Health warned that in fact complacency in policies such as mandatory vaccination “may do more harm than good”.

“Current mandatory vaccination policies are scientifically questionable and may be doing more harm than good to society,” the report said.

“Current policies may lead to widening economic and health inequalities, long-term harmful effects on trust in government and scientific institutions, and reduced uptake of future public health measures, including COVID-19 vaccines, as well as routine immunizations”.

The analysis recommended that vaccines be imposed only “moderately and carefully to maintain ethical norms and trust in institutions”.

During a February 26 panel discussion by US Republican Senator Ron Johnson on COVID-19 vaccines, researcher Raphael Lataster, an associate professor at the University of Sydney, said data from clinical trials of Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines had exaggerated the effectiveness of the injections.

Exaggerating the data could make an ineffective vaccine have a perceived effectiveness of up to 48%, he added.

Meanwhile, a Jan. 27 narrative review found that repeated vaccination with COVID-19 vaccines could end up increasing the likelihood that those vaccinated will experience COVID-19 infections and other illnesses. Taking more doses of the vaccine could trigger higher levels of IgG4 antibodies and affect the activation of white blood cells that protect a person from infections and cancers.

“Although booster doses have been recommended to enhance and extend immunity, especially in the face of emerging variants, this recommendation is not based on proven efficacy, and side effects have been neglected,” the document states.

In an interview last year on EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders,” Dr. Ryan Cole, a clinical pathologist, said that an increase in the number of cancers could be due to DNA contamination of some of the COVID-19 vaccines. 19. He discussed “turbo-cancers”, referring to the phenomenon of faster onset of cancer symptoms.

“Now I’m seeing solid tissue cancers at a rate I’ve never seen before … Patients who have been stable or cancer-free for one, two, five, ten years, and their cancer has come back, it has come back strong and is not responding to traditional therapies,” he said.