Perceptions of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Attitudes towards Vaccination among Israeli Healthcare Workers

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a global health challenge in which healthcare workers (HCW) play a crucial role. We aimed to assess the perceptions of HCW on the COVID-19 pandemic and their attitudes towards the forthcoming vaccine. Methods: A total of 647 hospital and community HCW (including 48 military physicians) from israel participated in a cross-sectional, online survey administered in September 2020. Results: The majority (78.8%) of HCW did not agree with the perception that COVID-19 is a seasonal, flu-like illness. In addition, most participants (70.1%) did not agree that lockdowns are an essential measure to overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic. Most (60.5%) of the participants believed that the negative socio-economic impacts of restrictive measures outweigh the health-related benefits. Nurses tended to support lockdowns. Women were less supportive of this measure, compared to men. Most HCW intend to vaccinate (73.6%) and recommend (79.2%) vaccination for COVID-19, both lower than reported rates for influenza vaccination. Nurses were less likely to get vaccinated or recommend vaccination, but supported restrictions more than physicians (Influenza: OR 0.23, OR 0.24 respectively, COVID-19: OR 0.38, OR 0.4 respectively. p=0<0.01). Community HCW encourage their patients to get influenza vaccines more than hospital personnel (OR=3.18, p=0.02), but there were no differences between to the two groups in encouragement to vaccinate for COVID-19.Conclusions: Educational interventions should be instituted to bridge gaps in perception and knowledge of public health and preventive measures among subsets of HCW.