What Do Nurses Think About the Immunization Campaign in Russia and the Prospects for the COVID-19 Pandemic Development?

Abstract

Prevention and vaccination against COVID-19 are not unanimously accepted in international practice. The effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign depends on both population and medical staff attitudes towards immunoprophylaxis. We carried out an empirical study of nurses' opinions about the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Russia and compared the results with those obtained from surveys of Russian controls. The level of vaccination coverage in the population in mid-January 2022 was assessed by surveying nurses living in different regions of Russia and directly involved in the COVID-19 vaccination campaign. We also measured nurses’ attitudes to some aspects of vaccination. 376 nurses took part in the online survey. For comparison, we used data from a sample of Russians we surveyed (N=1214). According to the nurses, on average just over 40% of Russians are vaccinated against COVID-19 (compared to the 53% officially). This subjective estimate is half the mass immunity goal (80%). In addition, the nurses living in the different regions of Russia are significantly more confident in expressing a position on mandatory mass vaccination than were the participants in an earlier sample survey of the entire Russian population. More nurses than in the quota sample of Russians believe in conspiracy theories about the coronavirus having arisen artificially to regulate the number of the poor. Most of the nurses surveyed believe that COVID-19 will never go away and that the media will support the epidemiological panic as it benefits the authorities and pharmaceutical companies.