As COVID-19 vaccines roll out across the United States, figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveal less than 38% of aged care workers accepted the vaccine when it was offered.

The data found that 37.5% of workers and 77.8% of residents, among the 11,460 skilled nursing facilities that had vaccination clinics, accepted a COVID-19 vaccine.

A survey of aged care workers in October 2020 found 37% of nurses weren’t confident the COVID-19 vaccines were safe and effective and only 34% said they would take the vaccine when offered.

The most frequent reason given for the refusal to get a COVID-19 vaccine was concerns about side effects – despite 1,374 health care workers already dying as a result of the virus.

The figures were released as the number of COVID-19 cases in US aged care homes are starting to see a drop off.

CDC figures showed that in the week ending 17 January, nursing homes across the US recorded 17,584 COVID-19 cases while the week ending 20 December had recorded over 32,500 cases.