May 7, 2021: It should be COVID-19 vaccines for health professionals?
WebMD surveyed its readers to get the question collected 3,035 responses. About two-thirds, or 66%, said yes and 34% said no. Among the yes votes, 55% believed them vaccines it should be required immediately and 11% said it should be mandatory eventually.
WebMD’s sister site, Medscape, which produces health news for medical professionals, conducted a similar survey. The results were similar: 69% of 998 physicians said employers should require doctors to obtain COVID-19 vaccines. Within this group, 7 out of 10 said vaccination should be done immediately, while 30% said the requirement should wait for full FDA approval.
In both surveys, people 65 and older were the main proponents of the need to vaccinate COVID-19 for health professionals.
In the WebMD survey, 25- to 34-year-olds were the only group in which the majority did not believe the shots were mandatory. Only 48% of this group agreed with this idea. Nearly three-quarters, or 73%, of people aged 55 to 64 supported this vaccine mandate.
And the state of the vaccine seemed to be important to readers. When asked how likely they could be to have a medical appointment with a doctor they know is not vaccinated, 24% answered “most likely”. Another 9% said it was likely, 20% were neutral about it and 17% said it was unlikely.
Nearly a third, 31%, indicated they were “very unlikely” to make that appointment.
Among respondents, 61% said they had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 48% said they were fully vaccinated.
The WebMD survey also asked people to report their concerns, if any, they have with COVID-19 vaccines. A total of 37% were concerned that the side effects of the vaccine would outweigh the risk of COVID-19. The same percentage reported concerns about effectiveness.
In addition, 28% reported concerns about other side effects, 27% about the speed of development, and 26%, worrying that the vaccines of some companies may be better than others.
WebMD’s seven-question survey was published online from April 27 to May 3.