FYI: Employer Requirements or Recommendations Markedly Improve Vaccination Rates

Occupational health professionals should encourage employers to actively facilitate vaccination!!  This week’s MMWR supports this suggestion and provides further evidence that the employer of healthcare personnel can greatly facilitate vaccination rates. While rates for both COVID and influenza vaccination were better with employer mandates, even a recommendation without requirement had a significant impact. (97%, 76%, 48% respectively for flu vaccination with requirement, recommendation, or none)

Similar results were seen for COVID-19 vaccination considering at least one dose or completion of primary series. However, receipt of booster among those completing the primary series showed considerably less gradient by employer requirement/recommendation/none status.

Also, there were remarkable differences by job title: higher paid/educated staff had vaccination percent coverage 50% greater than that of lower paid staff (assistant/aide).

IMPLICATIONS: 1) Employers play an important role; even education/encouragement without mandate is helpful. 2) We need to do much better to help vaccination in  assistant/aide workers, particularly since they may be at higher risk of community acquired infection as well.  

See:

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/pdfs/mm7142a2-H.pdf

PS: Respirator survey:

https://uarizona.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_b495F63Z7fzmAMm