Healthcare workers aren’t sure about the vaccine

Almost six out of ten staff at the Robert Schuman Hospital group said they want to be vaccinated against Sars-CoV-2, when surveyed at the end of December.

The group, which manages four hospitals in Luxembourg, conducted the informal, anonymous poll over two weeks spanning the end of December 2020 and the first week of January 2021, when Luxembourg began administering vaccines.

According to its press office, out of 942 responses collected, 14% said they wished to avoid vaccination and 57% wanted to be vaccinated while 54% wanted more information on the vaccination.

The results come after a non-representative survey conducted by science education platform science.lu found a third of respondents were opposed or hesitant about vaccination. It polled 2,553 people via Facebook and its own website from 30 November to 5 December.

A study published in Nature Medicine found that vaccine readiness was highest among people who said they felt well-informed about vaccination.

So far, Luxembourg has begun administering the Pfizer/Bionetch and Moderna vaccines, starting with healthcare workers, the elderly and carehome workers. Luxembourg has been promised over 500,000 doses combined from both companies via the European Commission procurement process.