This research of a giant nationwide surveillance system discovered that influenza vaccination protection amongst HCP in acute care hospitals has declined because the COVID-19 pandemic. A current research reported related outcomes from an Internet panel survey of HCP during which estimated influenza vaccination protection based mostly on self-reported receipt of influenza vaccine decreased between the 2019–20 and the 2020–21 seasons (5). These findings underscore the significance of investigating causes for declines in vaccination protection amongst HCP.

A mixture of things may need affected the decline in influenza vaccination protection amongst HCP throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Similar decreases in influenza vaccination noticed amongst HCP in different nations have been attributed to COVID-19 vaccination campaigns resulting in decreased emphasis on influenza vaccination and vaccine fatigue from having acquired a number of COVID-19 vaccines (6). Although the co-administration of COVID-19 and influenza vaccines is secure and efficient,^¶¶ particular person hesitancy to obtain each vaccines without delay may also have contributed to decrease influenza vaccination protection throughout the pandemic. In the United States, facility-wide mask-wearing was advisable by CDC throughout the pandemic,*** and fewer influenza instances, hospitalizations, and deaths had been reported throughout the 2020–21 and 2021–22 influenza seasons in contrast with earlier years.^††† These elements may need contributed to perceptions that the chance for buying influenza within the office was decrease and that influenza vaccination was much less vital than it had been in earlier years.

Similar to stories from earlier influenza seasons, nonemployee licensed unbiased practitioners had been persistently discovered to have decrease vaccination protection in contrast with workers.^§§§ Personnel instantly employed by a hospital is likely to be extra simply reached by methods to extend vaccination, equivalent to providing vaccination for gratis, eliminating an vital barrier to entry. In addition, facility-issued vaccine mandates have been discovered to enhance HCP influenza vaccination protection (7). However, facility-level vaccination mandates may not be simply enforced amongst nonemployee licensed unbiased practitioners, probably limiting the effectiveness of this technique on this subpopulation of HCP.

Previous stories of HCP vaccination have discovered that HCP working in rural areas had decrease vaccination protection in contrast with these working in nonrural areas (8). This report discovered that, in contrast with influenza vaccination protection amongst HCP working in rural areas, influenza vaccination protection amongst these working in suburban areas was considerably greater. There was no distinction in protection amongst HCP working in city and rural areas. This means that future research of vaccination protection would possibly contemplate inspecting HCP working in suburban and concrete areas as separate subgroups.

Limitations

The findings on this report are topic to no less than 4 limitations. First, this report consists of influenza vaccination information reported by services to NHSN on behalf of HCP, which might have resulted in an underestimate of influenza vaccination acquired by HCP exterior the hospital, significantly amongst HCP not employed instantly by the reporting hospital. Second, NHSN acquired combination facility-level information; subsequently, vaccination protection couldn’t be stratified by person-level covariates together with age, race, or ethnicity. Third, a reporting exception was granted for acute care hospitals for the 2019–2020 season, leading to solely a subset of services reporting and limiting the generalizability of the info reported that 12 months. Finally, NHSN doesn’t gather information about facility-level influenza vaccination mandates for HCP. Therefore, it was not doable to find out the impression that facility-level vaccination mandates or modifications to mandates over time may need had on influenza vaccination protection amongst HCP.

Implications for Public Health Practice

Receipt of an annual influenza vaccination by HCP working in acute care hospitals is vital for safeguarding themselves and hospitalized sufferers from influenza an infection and its related issues. Acute care hospitals can use evidence-based methods to extend vaccination protection, together with implementing necessary immunization insurance policies and providing on-site influenza vaccination for gratis to all worker and nonemployee workers members.^¶¶¶ Understanding elements contributing to current declines in influenza vaccination amongst HCP would possibly facilitate focused interventions to extend influenza vaccination protection throughout future public well being emergencies.