NEW YORK — The VA led the way among federal agencies in requiring front-line health workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19. It later expanded the requirement to most VHA employees, volunteers and contractors who work in those facilities or come in contact with veteran patients and healthcare workers as part of their duties.
The actions raised the questions of how effective vaccine mandates are in healthcare systems. A recent study in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology sought to answer that question, looking at the past implementation of mandatory influenza vaccination policies among healthcare personnel (HCP) in outpatient settings.1
Researchers from the VA New York Harbor Healthcare System and NYU Grossman School of Medicine, both in New York, focused on four VA health systems and three non-VA medical centers.
Researchers analyzed rates of influenza and other viral causes of respiratory infections among HCP working in outpatient sites at four VA health systems without mandatory influenza vaccination policies and three non-VA health systems with mandatory influenza vaccination policies.
The study determined that influenza vaccination was associated with a decreased risk of influenza (odds ratio, 0.17; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.13-0.22) but an increased risk of other respiratory viral infections (incidence rate ratio, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.02-1.57).
“Our fitted regression models suggest that if influenza vaccination rates in clinics where vaccination was not mandated had equaled those where vaccine was mandated, HCP influenza infections would have been reduced by 52.1% (95% CI, 51.3%-53.0%),” the authors wrote. “These observations, their possible causes, and additional strategies to reduce influenza and other viral respiratory illnesses among HCP working in ambulatory clinics warrant further investigation.”
- Simberkoff MS, Rattigan SM, Gaydos CA, Gibert CL, Gorse GJ, Nyquist AC, Price CS, Reich N, Rodriguez-Barradas MC, Bessesen M, Brown A, Cummings DAT, Radonovich LJ, Perl TM; ResPECT Study Team. Impact of mandatory vaccination of healthcare personnel on rates of influenza and other viral respiratory pathogens. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2021 Aug 5:1-5. doi: 10.1017/ice.2021.324. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34350820.