COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptability Among US Firefighters and Emergency Medical Services Workers: A Cross-Sectional Study

Caban-Martinez, Alberto J.; Silvera, Carlos A.; Santiago, Katerina M.; Louzado-Feliciano, Paola; Burgess, Jefferey L.; Smith, Denise L.; Jahnke, Sara; Horn, Gavin P.; Graber, Judith M.

OBJECTIVES: Estimate the point prevalence of COVID-19 vaccine acceptability among US firefighters and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) workers. METHODS: A cross-sectional study design was used to administer an anonymous online survey to a national non-probabilistic sample of firefighter and EMS workers. RESULTS: Among the 3169 respondents, 48.2% expressed high acceptability of the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available, while 24.2% were unsure and 27.6% reported low acceptability. Using the “high COVID-19 vaccine acceptability” group as the reference category, the groups with greater odds of reporting low acceptability included those: 30 to 39 years of age (odds ratio = 3.62 [95% confidence interval = 2.00 to 6.55]), Black race (3.60 [1.12 to 11.53]), Hispanic/Latinx ethnicity (2.39 [1.45 to 3.92]), with some college education (2.06 [1.29 to 3.27]), married (1.65 [1.03 to 2.65]), of current rank firefighter/EMS (2.21 [1.60 to 3.08]). CONCLUSIONS: Over half of US firefighters and EMS workers were uncertain or reported low acceptability of the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available.