Understanding COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy among Healthcare Workers in South Africa
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Study Design and Setting
2.2. Recruitment and Data Collection
2.3. Sample Size
2.4. Data Analysis
3. Results
3.1. The Perceived Speed at Which COVID-19 Vaccines Were Developed
First of all, I worked for 4 years on HIV vaccine research at the University of Cape Town in the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine. So, I know the amount of work that goes into creating a vaccine.(P25, Other HCW, M, Unvaccinated)
Any other medicine trial, anything else was 5 years plus before it ever got released, and how many medications have been recorded, even after all these test trials with much fewer side-effects than we’ve seen after the vaccine. And it just gets ignored, and that got all my alarm lights up that I said that this is not sensible, it’s not scientific.(P26, Doctor, F, Unvaccinated)
My major concerns I think, regarding the vaccine were most likely how […] fast it was released, and I know that it was sort of zipped along in the fastest possible channels. And yes, they’re trying to make it safe but actually we don’t have any proper safety data, let’s be honest because we haven’t done human studies […] The early data seemed good, but the safety of it was definitely a query for me because of how, sort of rushed along the whole process was. It was a bit uncomfortable.(P19, Doctor, F, Vaccinated)
3.2. Observing Patients Present with Side-Effects following Vaccination
I had several myocardial infarction[s], several strokes, myocarditis, pericarditis, and all sorts of other problems. Flare-ups of herpes zoster, flare-up of TB, diabetes, hypertension getting out of control, and you know when I saw that trend, I started recording all the patients coming to me and asked them if they’ve been vaccinated.(P8, Doctor, M, Unvaccinated)
There were instances whereby immediately after being injected with the vaccine other individuals collapsed almost immediately. Like before they could reach the gate leaving the hall where the vaccines were conducted, and they had to rush them to the hospital. And then with the duration of time also, we see others actually experienced partial paralysis.(P2, Nurse, M, Unvaccinated)
There was a client, in fact, a few clients of mine, that I was doing home visits. I remember this, the young boy was 30 something, he was healthy. Him and his father went for a vaccine and 3 days after that, he just passed on in his sleep, a healthy guy.(P16, Other HCW, F, Unvaccinated)
3.3. Confidence in Natural Immunity
I don’t see a need right now to get vaccinated because of the reason, like I said, my system fought it without [the vaccine].(P6, Other HCW, F, Unvaccinated)
People have coughed on me, they’ve sneezed on me, they’ve touched me. I know that I have got an immunity against it.(P24, Nurse, F, Unvaccinated)
And natural immunity over the years, for millennia, it’s been there, it has been shown that natural immunity… if the body’s taken care of, it can protect you against most of these pathogens. And then yeah, I’ll [opt] for natural immunity, and if I’m forced to then I’ll fight.(P2, Nurse, M, Unvaccinated)
3.4. Lack of Trust in Sources of Information
Honestly speaking, after COVID-19 and the introduction of vaccines, it’s been difficult to trust government and difficult to trust media; it’s been difficult to trust even the World Health Organisation itself, because who are they? How did they cover some of these things, who are they working with, why is it just something blows up from China?(P1, Other HCW, M, Unvaccinated)
Just this morning, I read some of the guidelines from the CDC and they still say it’s safe and effective, it’s better than getting COVID but I mean it’s only they will say that, and I can see with my own eyes it’s not like that. So I don’t know, I don’t trust any of these main government sponsored organisations anymore.(P8, Doctor, M, Unvaccinated)
It was another corrupt operation this whole thing… You know, as I said, I’m 73 years old; we didn’t have this during AIDS; when the swine flu hit, we didn’t have all these, but this was turned into a corruption feast, money made, if you look at [what] Pfizer made and all these red circle vaccine companies what they have made; [they] made billions.(P7, Doctor, M, Unvaccinated)
3.5. Insufficient and Misinformation about COVID-19 Vaccines
The only sensible information I got from colleagues why people previously infected should get the vaccine was, we think it’s better. So, there was no science behind it… I picked it up with quite a few colleagues that feel very similar, and it’s frustrating if you don’t get sensible information… If I’m not allowed to ask questions, real scientific founded questions, things that I’m worried about, that I don’t get answers to.(P26, Doctor, F, Unvaccinated)
If you look into how the issue is handled […] not all information was given or not a clear understanding.(P5, Other HCW, M, Unvaccinated)
The vaccine doesn’t work. Well, initially, I was expecting to get it, but the more I read about it, and it hasn’t been tested and it hasn’t been proven. And even up to now it’s evident that the vaccine is more harmful than useful, it’s not evading disease or getting infected or the spread of disease or complications or even getting rid of the COVID so the vaccine is known to be not helpful and it’s harmful, so that’s why I wouldn’t take it.(P8, Doctor, M, Unvaccinated)
4. Discussion
Strengths and Limitations
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Unvaccinated (Base Case) | Vaccinated | Odds Ratio [95% C. I.] | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Measures | Total participants n (%) | n (%) | n (%) | |
Age (p-value = 0.006) 2 | ||||
Younger than 35 years old | 2259 (31.83) | 266 (12.09) | 1934 (87.91) | 1.00 |
35 to 49 years old | 2906 (40.95) | 273 (9.62) | 2565 (90.38) | 1.29 [1.08–1.54] |
50 years old or older | 1932 (27.22) | 180 (9.46) | 1723 (90.54) | 1.31 [1.07–1.60] |
Gender (p-value = 0.013) | ||||
Male | 2168 (30.66) | 251 (11.78) | 1880 (88.22) | 1.00 |
Female | 4904 (69.34) | 469 (9.80) | 4317 (90.20) | 1.22 [1.04–1.44] |
Race (p-value = 0.000) | ||||
Black African | 4042 (58.33) | 392 (9.96) | 3542 (90.04) | 1.00 |
Coloured | 527 (7.61) | 60 (11.86) | 446 (88.14) | 0.82 [0.61–1.09] |
Indian | 427 (6.16) | 24 (5.67) | 399 (94.33) | 1.83 [1.20–2.81] |
White | 1933 (27.90) | 226 (11.79) | 1691 (88.21) | 0.82 [0.69–0.98] |
Religion (p-value = 0.000) | ||||
Christian | 5668 (82.68) | 568 (10.25) | 4973 (89.75) | 1.00 |
Muslim | 295 (4.30) | 28 (9.69) | 261 (90.31) | 1.06 [0.71–1.58] |
Buddhist or Hindu | 228 (3.33) | 11 (4.85) | 216 (95.15) | 2.24 [1.21–4.13] |
African Spirituality | 194 (2.83) | 34 (17.99) | 155 (82.01) | 0.52 [0.35–0.76] |
Other | 470 (6.86) | 50 (10.85) | 411 (89.15) | 0.93 [0.69–1.27] |
Nationality (p-value = 0.627) | ||||
South African | 6233 (89) | 630 (10.33) | 5470 (89.67) | 1.00 |
Non-South African | 770 (11) | 82 (10.90) | 670 (89.10) | 0.94 [0.73–1.20] |
Occupation (p-value = 0.000) | ||||
Nurse | 2568 (44.45) | 184 (7.30) | 2337 (92.70) | 1.00 |
Doctor | 1169 (20.24) | 108 (9.33) | 1049 (90.67) | 0.76 [0.59–0.98] |
All other | 2040 (35.31) | 219 (11.02) | 1768 (88.98) | 0.63 [0.51–0.78] |
Sector (p-value = 0.002) | ||||
Public | 2353 (40.72) | 196 (8.48) | 2114 (91.52) | 1.00 |
Private | 2069 (35.81) | 214 (10.58) | 1809 (89.42) | 0.78 [0.63–0.96] |
NGO | 555 (9.61) | 30 (5.48) | 517 (94.52) | 1.59 [1.07–2.37] |
Public and private | 507 (8.77) | 45 (9.05) | 452 (90.95) | 0.93 [0.66–1.30] |
Other | 294 (5.09) | 26 (9.00) | 263 (91.00) | 0.93 [0.61–1.43] |
Years worked (p-value = 0.718) | ||||
Less than 5 years | 811 (14.04) | 72 (9.08) | 721 (90.92) | 1.00 |
5 to 9 years | 1310 (22.68) | 123 (9.57) | 1162 (90.43) | 0.94 [0.69–1.28] |
10 years or more | 3655 (63.28) | 316 (8.81) | 3270 (91.19) | 1.03 [0.79–1.35] |
Chronic conditions 1 (p-value = 0.000) | ||||
No | 4633 (59.68) | 521 (11.50) | 4009 (88.50) | 1.00 |
Yes | 3130 (40.32) | 202 (8.32) | 2226 (91.68) | 1.43 [1.20–1.69] |
COVID-19 history (p-value = 0.121) | ||||
No | 3589 (50.46) | 382 (10.95) | 3108 (89.05) | 1.00 |
Yes | 3524 (49.54) | 340 (9.81) | 3125 (90.19) | 1.12 [0.96–1.31] |
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© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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George, G.; Nota, P.B.; Strauss, M.; Lansdell, E.; Peters, R.; Brysiewicz, P.; Nadesan-Reddy, N.; Wassenaar, D. Understanding COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy among Healthcare Workers in South Africa. Vaccines 2023, 11, 414. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11020414
George G, Nota PB, Strauss M, Lansdell E, Peters R, Brysiewicz P, Nadesan-Reddy N, Wassenaar D. Understanding COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy among Healthcare Workers in South Africa. Vaccines. 2023; 11(2):414. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11020414
Chicago/Turabian StyleGeorge, Gavin, Phiwe Babalo Nota, Michael Strauss, Emma Lansdell, Remco Peters, Petra Brysiewicz, Nisha Nadesan-Reddy, and Douglas Wassenaar. 2023. "Understanding COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy among Healthcare Workers in South Africa" Vaccines 11, no. 2: 414. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11020414