County estimates 50% of healthcare workers have opted out of first round of vaccines

As vaccine distribution continues at Riverside County hospitals, officials say about 50% of local healthcare workers have declined the vaccine so far. 

Hospital and public officials met last week  to strategize how best to distribute the un-used doses.

Vaccine doubts swirling among health care workers comes as a surprise to researchers who assumed hospital staff would be among those most in tune with the scientific data backing the vaccines. 

“What we've noticed is that about half of those healthcare workers are opting in to take the vaccine at this time. The ones who are not, we do believe that with future availability, continued availability of the vaccine, we will see a higher percentage of vaccine uptake,” said Brooke Federico, Public Information Officer, Riverside County. 

Frontline healthcare workers are the very first to have access to this vaccine. The county has been distributing the Pfizer vaccine at our local hospitals for three weeks now. 

“When we have a new vaccine, a critical component in introducing new vaccines to the public is education and going through what that safety is and these safety protocols behind creating a new vaccine, the efficacy of it, and what we’re seeing is that the adverse reactions to this vaccine are rare,” added Federico. 

According to the county, 45,000 doses have been distributed so far to 16 acute care hospitals as well as other rehabilitation hospitals.