Vaccine‐skeptic physicians and patient vaccination decisions

Abstract

What is the role of general practitioners (GPs) in supporting or hindering public health efforts? We investigate the influence of vaccine‐skeptic GPs on their patients' decisions to get a COVID‐19 vaccination. We identify vaccine‐skeptic GPs from the signatories of an open letter in which 199 Austrian physicians expressed their skepticism about COVID‐19 vaccines. We examine small rural municipalities where patients choose a GP primarily based on geographic proximity. These vaccine‐skeptic GPs reduced the vaccination rate by 5.6 percentage points. This estimate implies that they discouraged 7.9% of the vaccinable population. The effect appears to stem from discouragement rather than rationing vaccine access.

Do physicians' attitudes toward prioritization predict poor‐health patients' access to care?

“…Hersh and Goldenberg (2016) further find a link between physicians' political views and their assessment of the seriousness of patients' conditions and appropriate care based on vignettes. A recent study by Steinmayr and Rossi (2023) shows that GPs' attitudes toward vaccination impacts their patients' decisions to get a COVID-19 vaccination. However, real-world evidence remains scarce on the link between physicians' attitudes toward prioritization of healthcare and their actual provision of care to patients.…”