(The Epoch Times)—The share of health care personnel recommending COVID-19 jabs and other vaccines to patients has declined significantly in recent years, with overall trust in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declining, according to a recent study.
The peer-reviewed study, published in the journal NPJ Vaccines on Feb. 28, examined how vaccine attitudes and recommendations changed among health care personnel (HCP) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers conducted a survey in January 2023 and compared the results with an earlier survey from September 2021, finding that health care personnel recommendations for vaccines “decreased substantially for nearly all vaccines and patient populations.”
In addition, trust in the CDC “decreased [from 79 to 73 percent], as did support for HCP COVID-19 vaccine mandates [from 65 to 46 percent].”
“This is concerning as HCP have long been the most frequently used and credible source of vaccine information, especially given public suspicion of vaccine information from pharmaceutical companies and government, and encouragement from HCP is strongly associated with patients vaccinating against COVID-19,” said the study.
Researchers found that health care personnel not vaccinated against COVID-19 were “far less likely to recommend vaccinating to their patients.” And even in the case of vaccinated personnel, they required regularly updated resources “to confidently discuss vaccines with hesitant patients.”
Study Participants
The study was conducted among 1,207 participants made up of four types of health care personnel—pediatricians; family medicine doctors; physicians assistants, nurse practitioners, and nurses; and pharmacists. Almost all personnel (96 percent) had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine, with 82 percent taking booster shots.
The most frequently boosted personnel were pediatricians, followed by family medicine doctors, pharmacists, and nurses. Almost three-quarters of respondents had high trust in the CDC, which was found to be critical with regard to receiving COVID-19 vaccines.
“Most HCP with high trust in CDC [90 percent] were boosted, compared to [61 percent] of HCP with low trust in CDC,” the study said, adding that those with high trust in the CDC were nearly six times as likely to be boosted compared to those with low trust in the CDC.
Among those surveyed, 46 percent supported COVID-19 vaccine mandates for health care personnel, with supporters observed to be much more frequent among the boosted population. Among the 218 health care personnel who had not yet taken the booster shot, the most common reason was concern about side effects, with 44 percent citing this issue.
Other major reasons cited included the speed of vaccine development and approval (27 percent), low risk of infection (27 percent), and discomfort with the Emergency Use Authorization (24 percent).
Over half the personnel said that a key challenge to vaccinating patients against COVID-19 was the concern raised by the patients. Sixty-four percent pointed to patient concerns about the necessity of vaccines, 60 percent to the safety, and 54 percent about the effectiveness of the jabs.
Health care personnel who had received booster shots recommended three brands of COVID-19 vaccines more frequently than those who had not been boosted: Pfizer-BioNTech (38 percent of boosted versus 12 percent not boosted), Moderna (46 percent versus 11 percent), and Johnson & Johnson (8 percent versus 2 percent).
The study was conducted by five researchers based in the United States, out of which four declared competing interests.
Two of them received research support from Merck, with one serving on the advisory boards of Merck, Janssen, Sanofi, and Moderna. Both received funding from the Vaccination Confidence Fund, which is jointly funded by Facebook and Merck.
A third researcher serves as a consultant to Pfizer on meningococcal B vaccine. The fourth individual is a paid health advisor to the University of Roehampton, which provided guidance on pandemic recovery and preparedness, including views on vaccines, to the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations.
Vaccine Mandates for Health Care Workers
Health care workers were subjected to rigorous COVID-19 rules during the pandemic. In 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a rule mandating all American health care workers be vaccinated, which applied to about 76,000 health care providers covering roughly 17 million workers.
Health care workers protested the mandate. The Pennsylvania Health Care Association warned that the Biden administration’s proposal had the “potential to exacerbate an existing workforce crisis and jeopardize access to care for tens of thousands of vulnerable residents.”
“After seventeen months of providing tireless care at the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, long-term care continues to face a troubling trend of federal and state governments threatening and punishing the same healthcare heroes they once supported and rallied behind,” it stated.
Coffee the Christian way: Promised Grounds
In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Biden administration to continue imposing COVID-19 vaccination requirements on most health care workers who were employed at places receiving funding from Medicaid and Medicare.
There are multiple studies among health care workers showing adverse effects following COVID-19 vaccination. A 2022 study on health care employees in Iraq found adverse events among vaccinated workers.
“The adverse effects associated with the Pfizer vaccine were significantly more prevalent in females than in males. Following the first dose, the participants experienced more adverse effects with the AstraZeneca vaccine. Following the second dose, more adverse effects were associated with the Pfizer vaccine,” it stated.
Another study among health care workers published in February 2024 found that 84.6 percent suffered at least one side effect after the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Some of these side effects included headaches, muscle pain, and chills.
A recently published study in the International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research found links between vaccine hesitancy among individuals and their knowledge of vaccinated people affected by side effects.
“Knowing someone who experienced a health problem following COVID-19 injection reduced the likelihood of injection,” the study stated. Such individuals “were more likely to oppose injection mandates and passports.”
Among those who were aware of at least one person who experienced COVID-19 injection adverse events, they said they knew about 57 deaths following vaccination.
“The health issues reported ranged from serious problems such as cardiac arrests and other heart-related problems, blood clots and other circulatory problems, to neurological issues, as well as milder effects such as feeling sick, headache, fever, etc.”
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
