Has the Approach of Healthcare Workers to Influenza Vaccine Changed due to the Pandemic? What are their Perspectives on Covid-19 Vaccine?

Objectives: Increasing influenza vaccine intake in healthcare workers during the pandemic period will benefit the management of respiratory tract infections. This study aimed to investigate the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on influenza vaccination and COVID-19 vaccine. Methods: Healthcare workers were questioned over a survey about their status of having received the previous influenza vaccine and the influenza vaccine and COVID-19 vaccine this year. Their relationship with occupation, working in risky conditions and demographic characteristics of the individuals was investigated. Results: While the rate of those who received the influenza vaccine in 2019 was 19.1% (n=147) this rate was 27.5% (n=211) in 2020 (p lt;0.001). Those who received the influenza vaccine in 2019 accepted to receive the vaccine in 2020 as well (p lt;0.001) and it was observed that those who did not receive the vaccine in 2019 did not receive it in 2020, either (p lt;0.001). The rate of physicians who accepted both vaccines was higher than the rate of the other groups. When those who accepted to receive the COVID-19 vaccine were analyzed it was observed that the rate of those who accepted to receive the influenza vaccine in 2019 and 2020 was significantly higher than the rate of those who did not (p lt;0.001). Conclusion: Especially conducting training-based works in order to help the individuals accept influenza-like vaccines that are known to be safe and have been used for years seems to be important for the vaccination of not only this disease but also the other diseases with the same transmission route.