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Does CDC COVID vaccine guidance sway patient decision-making?
Few people know much about changes to the CDC's COVID vaccine guidance, and even fewer said what they'd heard made an impact on their health decisions.
Changing and often conflicting COVID-19 vaccine guidance out of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has caused many public health professionals to worry it might dampen vaccination rates and fuel vaccine hesitancy.
But, according to a new Pew Research Center survey, the CDC's latest vaccine advice didn't have much impact at all. In fact, most people didn't even know about the new guidelines.
According to the poll of more than 5,000 U.S. adults, 44% of people knew nothing at all of the changes the CDC made to its COVID-19 vaccine guidance earlier this year. Another 41% said they knew a little about the changes, while only 15% said they knew a lot.
These findings come after months of concern from public health officials, who feared the changing vaccine guidance, which also often conflicted with the guidance from established medical societies, would harm vaccination rates.
Few aware of CDC changes to COVID vaccine advice
Earlier this year, the CDC changed its COVID-19 vaccine advice from recommendations that nearly everyone get the shot to recommendations that most confer with a healthcare professional before getting the jab.
Despite concerns from public health officials that changing CDC guidance would discourage or confuse consumers seeking the shots, Pew found that it actually had little impact.
The impact the changes did have varied depending on demographics. For example, older adults over age 65 who are at higher risk of COVID infection were more likely to say they knew a little or a lot about the changing guidance (69%) compared to younger adults aged 18-29 (49%).
Additionally, those with college degrees (63%) and those who identify as Democrats or lean Democrat (63%) were more likely to know at least a little about the changes than their counterparts (52% and 50%, respectively).
CDC vaccine guidance is not influential
Even when people had heard about the changes to CDC COVID vaccine guidance, the researchers found the messaging wasn't especially influential. Indeed, 63% of those who said they'd heard about the changes said it made no impact on their decision to get the shot.
Only 12% said the guidance had a major impact on their decision-making.
Again, these trends varied across demographics.
Younger people who knew about the changes were more likely to say it had at least a minor influence on their decision compared to older adults. This was also true of racial/ethnic minorities and individuals who are Democrats or lean Democratic.
If the changing guidance had any impact at all, it might have been in regard to overall vaccine guidance from the Trump Administration, Pew said.
Among adults who were familiar with the changes to the COVID vaccine guidance, 40% said the changing guidance made them less trusting of other vaccine recommendations from Trump's CDC. Another 10% said it made them more trusting, while the changes had no impact among a third of respondents.
Unsurprisingly, these findings were more pronounced among those who identify as Democrats.
So, who actually wants a COVID vaccine?
According to Pew, updated COVID-19 vaccines aren't super popular with the general population, with only 26% saying they want an updated booster and 13% saying they already got it. Across all U.S. adults, 59% said they don't want the shot.
Notably, those who identified as Republicans were significantly more likely to say they don't want an updated COVID-19 shot, with 83% saying as much. That compares to the 64% of Democrats who said they want or have already gotten an updated shot.
Moreover, older adults over age 65 were significantly more likely to say they want to get or have already gotten an updated COVID-19 shot. Younger adults aged 18-29 weren't far behind, with 31% saying they want to get the updated shot and 13% saying they already have.
These findings offer insights into the impact that CDC vaccine recommendations could have. While they indicate that CDC's guidance had less of a deleterious effect than public experts might have feared, they also suggest that messaging efforts from clinicians themselves were effective counters to CDC guidance.
Sara Heath has reported news related to patient engagement and health equity since 2015.
