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Some healthcare workers are hesitant to receive coronavirus shots, but hospital CEOs told CNBC on Thursday they expect attitudes to change after a higher percentage of employees are immunized.
“I think soon everyone will want to take it,” Will Ferniany, executive director of the UAB Health System in Alabama, said in “Squawk on the Street.” “About 60% are eager to take it and want to know as soon as they can,” he said, referring to a survey of employees. “Twenty percent want to take it, but are cautious and 20% are very skeptical about taking it.”
The UAB Hospital was scheduled to begin offering vaccines to healthcare workers on Thursday after receiving 10,725 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine earlier in the week. The first vaccines in the US outside of clinical trials were carried out on Monday, just days after the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization.
Ferniany said the hesitancy of some employees to get vaccinated was not surprising. “But I think when they see what’s going on with their friends and while this is rolling out, and the vaccine is rolling out smoothly in Alabama, I think most of the people” will want to get the shots, “he said.
The multi-hospital system, which is based in Birmingham, Alabama, cannot make Covid-19 vaccination mandatory because the vaccine has received regulatory clearance only in emergencies, Ferniany said. However, he said employees should get vaccinated against the seasonal flu. Last year, about 52% of Americans who were at least six months old received the flu vaccine.
“But we have provided a considerable amount of information to our staff, FAQ, Zoom forums for everyone. I think as they educate themselves, they will accept it,” Ferniany said of the Covid vaccine.
Dr. Marc Boom, executive director of Houston Methodist in Texas, told CNBC that more than 11,000 of his employees have signed up to receive the vaccine. “There is a large percentage of our population that is running into this,” he said, adding that he provides comfort to healthcare workers who have experienced the devastation of the pandemic closely. “There was so much relief and so much hope for the arrival of the vaccine,” he said on “Squawk on the Street.”
However, Boom said, “there is another group that is adopting a wait-and-see attitude” in the eight-hospital system, which is also part of the sprawling Texas Medical Center.
Like Ferniany, Boom said additional education and experience from other employees should help more workers feel comfortable receiving the new vaccine. “We have demanded the flu vaccine for over 15 years and we always get to full vaccination with that. Eventually we will get there,” even if it takes a little time, Boom said.
The launch of the Covid vaccine this week comes at a critical time in the U.S. coronavirus epidemic. The seven-day national average of new infections is at an all-time high of 215,729, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by the Johns Hopkins University. Daily deaths are also at a record 2,570, based on an average of seven days.
In Texas, where hospitalizations have been flat for the past week, Boom said more rural areas of the state are being hit harder now compared to the spike seen earlier this summer.
Covid patient hospitalizations in Alabama are at a record high, according to the COVID Tracking Project, which is led by journalists from The Atlantic. While Ferniany congratulated the state governor, Republican Kay Ivey, for extending her masquerade term, she said coronavirus cases are increasing “rapidly.” “Some of our rural hospitals that we manage, almost 50% of their hospital is now with Covid patients,” Ferniany said.
