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. 2022 Apr 28;10(5):689.
doi: 10.3390/vaccines10050689.

COVID-19 Vaccines: Fear of Side Effects among German Health Care Workers

Christopher Holzmann-Littig  1   2 , Tamara Frank  3 , Christoph Schmaderer  1 , Matthias C Braunisch  1 , Lutz Renders  1 , Peter Kranke  4 , Maria Popp  4 , Christian Seeber  5 , Falk Fichtner  5 , Bianca Littig  1 , Javier Carbajo-Lozoya  1 , Joerg J Meerpohl  6   7 , Bernhard Haller  8 , Christine Allwang  3 , On Behalf Of The CEOsys Consortium
Affiliations

COVID-19 Vaccines: Fear of Side Effects among German Health Care Workers

Christopher Holzmann-Littig et al. Vaccines (Basel). .

Abstract

(1) Background: Health care workers (HCWs) play a key role in increasing anti-COVID vaccination rates. Fear of potential side effects is one of the main reasons for vaccine hesitancy. We investigated which side effects are of concern to HCWs and how these are associated with vaccine hesitancy. (2) Methods: Data were collected in an online survey in February 2021 among HCWs from across Germany with 4500 included participants. Free-text comments on previously experienced vaccination side effects, and fear of short- and long-term side effects of the COVID-19 vaccination were categorized and analyzed. (3) Results: Most feared short-term side effects were vaccination reactions, allergic reactions, and limitations in daily life. Most feared long-term side effects were (auto-) immune reactions, neurological side effects, and currently unknown long-term consequences. Concerns about serious vaccination side effects were associated with vaccination refusal. There was a clear association between refusal of COVID-19 vaccination in one's personal environment and fear of side effects. (4) Conclusions: Transparent information about vaccine side effects is needed, especially for HCW. Especially when the participants' acquaintances advised against vaccination, they were significantly more likely to fear side effects. Thus, further education of HCW is necessary to achieve good information transfer in clusters as well.

Keywords: COVID-19; fears; health care workers; side-effects; vaccine hesitancy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. Joerg Meerpohl is Member of the Ständige Impfkommission (STIKO)—Standing Commission on Vaccination at the Robert-Koch-Institute in Germany.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow Chart, adapted from Holzmann-Littig et al. [12].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Word Cloud of experienced side effects, constructed from upper categories.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Frequencies of participants with experienced or feared side effects.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Word cloud of feared short-term side effects, constructed from upper categories.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Feared short-term side effects and Odds Ratios for COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy, with categories arranged by frequency, most frequent on top.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Word cloud of feared long-term side effects, constructed from upper categories.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Feared long-term side effects and Odds Ratios for COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy, with categories arranged by frequency, most frequent on top. Upper limit of the 95% confidence interval for “death” is 2006.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Professional groups and feared short-term side effects.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Professional groups and feared long-term side effects.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Attitudes towards the COVID-19 vaccination in the personal environment and Odds ratios for side effects (short-term: vaccination reactions excluded).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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