workforce programmes ,” says Associate Professor Holly Seale , an infectious disease social scientist from UNSW .
Seale points to the fact that we don ’ t get 100 per cent coverage in the influenza vaccine each year , sometimes being as low as 40 per cent uptake .
“ One of the number one reasons [ for low flu vaccine uptake ] was because people didn ’ t feel the need to get the vaccine . And we know we ’ re in a unique situation with COVID ; in Australia we don ’ t necessarily have a huge amount of COVID activity right now . We ’ ll need some assistance to help convince people and talk about the vaccine , so that they can make up their minds about it .”
Registered nurse Jen Ives receives a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine from Tracey Coppleman at the Royal Hobart Hospital . Picture : Chris Kidd
A matter of choice
Should the COVID-19 vaccine be mandatory for healthcare workers ?
By Conor Burke
With the COVID-19 vaccine rollout underway , questions still stand about the public ’ s appetite to get vaccinated .
Recent data from the Melbourne Institute ’ s fortnightly Taking the Pulse of the Nation ( TTPN ) survey found that willingness to take a vaccine has fallen over the last four months , from 74.4 per cent in October 2020 to 66.2 per cent in February 2021 .
More worryingly , the percentage of people who said they would not take the vaccine rose in the same period from 12 per cent in October 2020 to 19.4 per cent in early February 2021 .
Similarly , an ANU study found that six per cent of the population say they definitely won ’ t get vaccinated , with another seven per cent of Australians saying they will probably not get the vaccine .
There are also questions surrounding uptake amongst healthcare professionals . In the US , a Centre for Disease Control report found that aged care homes had a median vaccination rate of 37.5 per cent for staff during the first month of the federal vaccination effort ; by comparison , a median of 77.8 per cent of nursing home residents received the vaccine .
In Los Angeles county , 20 to 40 per cent of the county ’ s frontline workers who were offered the vaccine declined .
In the UK , Health Minister Matt Hancock says that uptake of the vaccine has been lower among NHS staff than the general population , as reported by The Guardian .
Vaccination rates were more than 90 per cent among the first four age groups to have been offered at least a first injection – which include all those aged 70 and above – but for NHS staff it was about 80 per cent , and for care staff “ around twothirds ”, Hancock said .
UNKNOWN QUANTITY “ It ’ s because I don ’ t know about the side effects . It hasn ’ t been out long ,” Cheryl , a care home worker from Enfield in North London , told the BBC .
But what about here in Australia ? Will healthcare workers be as reticent as their overseas counterparts ?
“ We should be mindful of talking about trends because here in Australia , we don ’ t necessarily have a huge amount of data to go on . We are working in a little bit of a void . And we go on what we see is happening overseas and the countries that have already launched their vaccine
SHOULD THE VACCINE BE MANDATORY FOR HCWS ? Last year , the federal government mandated influenza vaccines for anyone entering an aged care facility at the height of the COVID-19 outbreak , however , it has so far resisted doing the same for the COVID-19 vaccine .
Health Department Secretary Brendan Murphy said that while the idea of mandatory vaccinations for healthcare workers is on the table , it won ’ t be put into place until more is known about the vaccine ’ s effect on transmissibility .
“ If it is very effective , as we expect , at preventing transmission , once we have an opportunity for all of the workers to be vaccinated , that is something that will be reconsidered .”
Former deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth , now a senior administrator at Canberra Hospital , has said that he would not support any moves to make the vaccine mandatory for his staff . “ We need to convince our healthcare workers just as much as the community at large that this is an effective vaccine and a safe vaccine … we can ’ t force anyone to take the vaccine ,” Coatsworth said in an appearance on ABC TV ’ s Q + A .
In the aged care space , peak body LASA says that it is appropriate to consider mandatory vaccinations in the sector .
“ LASA has said throughout the pandemic that it must be a national priority to do all we can to protect older Australians in-care , and the staff that care for them ,” says LASA chief executive Sean Rooney .
“ Part of doing all we can to protect older Australians in-care is to consider mandated COVID-19 vaccinations for aged care workers – assuming it is safe to do so and with appropriate exemptions .
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