Journal Says Half of Health-Care Workers Would Refuse Swine Flu Vaccine

New research suggests that half of all health-care workers around the world would refuse the swine flu vaccine, a British scientific journal reported Wednesday.

The conclusion is taken from a study of more than 2,200 health workers this year in Hong Kong, during the height of global H1N1 flu panic in May. Experts said the trend would likely apply worldwide.

Most of those polled said they would pass on the flu shot because they were afraid of side effects and doubted how safe and effective it would be.

The World Health Organization recommends countries vaccinate their health workers. Many Western countries, including Britain, Spain and the United States, have said that doctors and nurses would be among the first to get swine flu shots this fall because their absence from work could cripple health systems.

The study results, published online in BMJ, formerly known as the British Medical Journal, suggest that carrying out those plans may be tricky.

"A good argument can be made that health workers have an ethical obligation to be vaccinated, not to protect themselves, but to protect their patients," said George Annas, a bioethics expert at Boston University. "But if they don't believe that vaccine to be safe and effective, it will be a hard sell."

Fewer than 60 percent of health workers in most countries get vaccinated against regular flu, thought to be a reliable indicator of whether they might get a swine flu shot. In the United States, about 35 percent of health workers get a regular flu shot.

Annas said health workers were ultimately like everyone else when it comes to getting vaccines. "Like the lay population, they assume they won't need the shot because they don't think they will get the flu," he said.

Several drugmakers are testing their swine flu vaccines. So far, officials say that no one who has gotten the injections has reported anything more serious than a sore or swollen arm.