The Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll shows 35 percent of health-care workers aren’t too confident or aren’t confident at all that the vaccines have been properly tested — a number that’s very similar to the general population. What’s more, 3 in 10 either don’t currently plan to get vaccinated (18 percent) or haven’t yet decided (12 percent). And 1 in 6 says they would actually quit if their employer required them to get vaccinated.
This will undoubtedly be seen by some vaccine skeptics as legitimizing their fears. Even many health-care workers won’t take it, period, or are hesitant. And if even they aren’t convinced?
But it’s worth a closer look at just where the hesitancy comes from.
As The Post’s story notes, health-care workers run the gamut from doctors to hospital staff to caregivers. And the poll shows that those in higher-profile jobs and with more formal education are significantly less skeptical.
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The biggest gap in the poll, though, is in education.
While 24 percent of those with less than a bachelor’s degree say they don’t plan to get the vaccine, that number is just 11 percent for those with college degrees and just 8 percent for those with postgraduate degrees.
That last one is a reasonable analog for doctors and other top professionals with the most medical knowledge. And of all the demographic groups broken out in the poll, they are the least skeptical of the vaccine. Fully 72 percent of them say they have already gotten at least one dose, and 85 percent have either gotten it or plan to.