Reasons essential care workers COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy U.S. 2022

A survey of U.S. adults fielded between April 27 and May 29, 2022 found that around 56 percent of essential non-healthcare workers, such as social service workers, grocery store workers, and workers of schools, who were hesitant to vaccinate against COVID-19 stated they did not trust vaccines. This statistic shows the percentage of essential care workers in the United States who gave select reasons for being hesitant to vaccinate against COVID-19 as of 2022.

Percentage of essential care workers in the United States who were hesitant to vaccinate against COVID-19 for select reasons as of 2022

Characteristic	Essential Healthcare	Essential Non-healthcare	Non-essential
Concerned about side effects	65%	59%	57%
Don't know if vaccines work	22%	16%	20%
Don't need them	50%	45%	44%
Doctor has not recommended them	22%	16%	12%
Plan to wait and see	15%	11%	19%
Don't trust vaccines	61%	56%	49%
Don't trust government	34%	29%	43%
COVID-19 is not a threat	27%	22%	37%

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Release date

March 2023

More information

Region

United States

Survey time period

April 27- May 29, 2022

Number of respondents

around 65,000

Age group

18 years and older

Supplementary notes

Percentages do not add up to 100 because respondents may select multiple reasons for hesitancy.

The source states: "We define hesitancy as those respondents who indicate that they are “unsure” or would “probably not” or “definitely not” get a COVID-19 vaccine (our binary measure equal to one). Those answering “yes” to being vaccinated are therefore treated as not hesitant (our binary measure is equal to zero), as are those who responded “definitely” or “probably” as to their intent to get vaccinated."

"Essential Healthcare: Respondent works in a healthcare setting that was classified by CDC as phase 1(a). This includes all paid and unpaid persons who are at highest risk of exposure given the potential for direct or indirect exposure to patients or infectious materials. This includes persons not directly involved in patient care, but potentially exposed to infectious agents while working in a healthcare setting. Frontline healthcare workers, including those working or volunteering in a hospital, nursing or residential healthcare facility, are in this category. Other workers in this category include those working in pharmacy, and ambulatory healthcare."

"Essential Non-healthcare: Respondent works in a setting that was classified by CDC as phase 1(b) or 1(c). This includes the subset of workers likely at medium risk for work-related exposure to SARS-CoV-2 because their work-related duties must be performed on-site and involve being in close proximity (less than 6 feet) to the public or to coworkers. This category includes social service workers,25 first respondents, correctional facility workers, grocery store workers, workers in certain manufacturing and service industries (e.g., energy, food, chemical), public transit workers, workers of schools and other instructional facilities, and postal service workers."

"Non-essential: Respondent works in setting that was classified by CDC as phase 2, or not included anywhere else. This includes workers likely at low risk of work-related exposure to SARS-CoV-2."

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