ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: COVID-19 vaccines have become the new hope for stemming the pandemic. We aimed to assess pre-launch vaccine acceptance among hospital workers in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Administrative Region of France. METHODS: We performed a cross sectional study involving all hospital workers in 11 Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes hospitals in December 2020. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify factors associated with vaccine hesitancy. RESULTS: We analyzed completed questionnaires from 1,964 respondents (78% women, mean age 42 years, 21.5% physicians, 41% private care centers). A total of 1,048 (53%) hospital workers were in favor of COVID-19 vaccination. Vaccine hesitancy was associated with: female gender; young age; paramedical, technical, and administrative professions (i.e., all non-medical professions); no prior flu vaccination; and employment in the private medical care sector (p<0.05). Distrust of health authorities and pharmaceutical lobbying were the main obstacles to vaccination. Inversely, creating herd immunity and protecting patients and household members were the most frequently cited reasons in favor of vaccination. More than two-thirds of participants feared that the clinical and biological research was too rapid and worried about serious adverse effects. Most participants were interested in written information on the available vaccines, but the most vaccine-hesitant categories preferred oral information. Only 35% supported mandatory vaccination. CONCLUSIONS: Targeted written and oral information campaigns will be necessary to improve vaccination coverage among hospital workers who show a surprisingly high hesitancy rate. Imposing mandatory vaccination could be counterproductive.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 Vaccines , COVID-19 , Adult , Cross-Sectional Studies , Female , Hospitals , Humans , Male , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
Hemoglobin variant with high oxygen affinity is an uncommon, often misdiagnosed, etiology of erythrocytosis. We report two cases of erythrocytosis. Their hemoglobin-oxygen dissociation curve showed a P50 value (the oxygen tension at which hemoglobin is 50% saturated) below the normal range. Globin chains electrophoresis and DNA analysis evidenced hemoglobin Olympia and hemoglobin Malmö, respectively. More than 200 variants of hemoglobin with increased oxygen affinity have been described, that are in about one-third responsible of secondary erythocytosis because of tissular hypoxia. Such abnormal haemoglobin identification should be routinely included in the diagnostic work-up of unexplained erythocytosis, particularly in young people.
