MOSCOW, March 6. / TASS /. Two-thirds of Russian health care workers reported getting vaccinated against influenza every year. This was announced on Saturday at the XXIII Congress of Russian Pediatricians by the head of the Department of Epidemiology and Evidence-Based Medicine of Sechenov University, Chief Freelance Epidemiologist of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nikolai Briko.
“We conducted a study quite recently, we are just beginning to analyze them, but here is the proportion of doctors who were vaccinated against influenza in two epidemic seasons - last year and this year, against the backdrop of a coronavirus infection pandemic, and we see that the proportion of those who answered that they were vaccinated against influenza, 68.2% (yes, we are vaccinated annually - according to Briko's presentation), "he said.
At the same time, Brico noted that infectious disease specialists and epidemiologists are most committed to vaccination against influenza. "Among them the highest level of vaccination. But, unfortunately, neurologists, family doctor, endocrinologist, among them the percentage of those vaccinated against influenza is lower," the epidemiologist added.
He also said that according to another survey conducted before the pandemic, in which more than 32 thousand people took part in 73 regions of the Russian Federation, 77% of respondents said that they consider the influenza vaccine ineffective. "When asked if you are vaccinated against the flu, 15% answered that they are not vaccinated," Briko said.
According to an expert presentation, another 5% of respondents do not trust the vaccine against tuberculosis and hepatitis B.