A survey in the health sector indicates that 73% of health workers in Croatia plan to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or have already done so while 10% do not plan to even though they did not have COVID-19 and are not protected with anti-bodies.

So far, 24% of health workers have been vaccinated and the plan is to vaccinate another 49%. The level of confidence in the safety of vaccines amongst health workers is high and amounts to 76%, shows the survey, conducted in January before the start of a nation-wide vaccination campaign.

There are 73,000 people employed in Croatia’s health system. Almost 9,000 doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, midwifes, dentists, psychologists, pharmacists and other medical personnel participated in the survey.

“It is interesting to note that 2 out of 10 respondents had contracted COVID-19. Just over half of the respondents (56%) believe they could get infected while almost as many (55%) consider COVID-19 to be a dangerous disease,” a press release said.

Health workers were asked to evaluate, on a scale of 1 to 7, their stance regarding several psychological predictors that are crucial to deciding about getting vaccinated. People willing to be vaccinated have a tendency to consider vaccines to be safe, do not underestimate the danger of the disease, weigh the pros and cons less and have a greater level of collective responsibility.

The majority of health workers who have been vaccinated or plan to get vaccinated against COVID-19 have in the past five years also been vaccinated against the flu.

Health workers assessed the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine with a score of 5.4 on a scale of 1 to 7. They gave the same mark for the importance of analysing the risks and benefits of vaccination prior to making a decision.