ArticleVaccine2023
Strategic silences, eroded trust: The impact of divergent COVID-19 vaccine sentiments on healthcare workers' relations with peers and patients.
Article in Vaccine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Understanding Healthcare Workers' COVID-19 Vaccination Decision-Making as a Dynamic Process: A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis.Vaccines · 2026Review
- A Qualitative Study of Social Processes, HPV Vaccine Attitudes, and Vaccination Behavior Among Hesitant Adopter Parents.Clinical pediatrics · 2025Article
- Profiling vaccine hesitancy in nursing to tailor public healthcare policies: A cross-sectional international study.Journal of nursing scholarship : an official publication of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing · 2025Article
- The protective power of dissent? A longitudinal study on cognitive and socio-emotional determinants of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among young people in Canada.Transcultural psychiatry · 2024Article
- Article
- Is resistance to Covid-19 vaccination a "problem"? A critical policy inquiry of vaccine mandates for healthcare workers.AIMS public health · 2024Article
- Embracing context: Lessons from designing a dialogue-based intervention to address vaccine hesitancy.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 6 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPolarized debates about Covid-19 vaccination and vaccine mandates for healthcare workers (HCWs) challenge Belgian HCWs ability to discuss Covid-19 vaccine sentiments with peers and patients.Although studies have identified drivers of HCWs vaccine hesitancy, they do not include effects of workplace interactions and have not addressed consequences beyond vaccine coverage.
methodsInterviews and focus group discussions with 74 HCWs practicing in Belgium addressed Covid-19 vaccine sentiments and experiences of discussing vaccination with peers and patients.
resultsMost participating HCWs reported difficulties discussing Covid-19 vaccination with peers and patients. Unvaccinated HCWs often feared that expressing their vaccine sentiments might upset patients or peers and that they would be suspended. Consequently, they used social cues to evaluate others' openness to vaccine-skeptical discourses and avoided discussing vaccines. Surprisingly, some vaccine-confident HCWs hid their vaccine sentiments to avoid peer and patient conflicts. Both vaccinated and unvaccinated HCWs observed that unvaccinated patients occasionally received suboptimal care. Suboptimal care was central in unvaccinated HCW unwillingness to express their vaccine sentiments to peers. Both vaccinated and unvaccinated HCWs described loss of trust and ruptured social relations with peers and patients holding divergent vaccine sentiments. DISCUSSION: Belgian HCW perceived Covid-19 vaccines as a risky discussion topic and engaged in "strategic silences" around vaccination to maintain functional work relationships and employment in health institutions. Loss of trust between HCW and peers or patients, along with suboptimal patient care based on vaccination status, threaten to weaken Belgium's, and by implication, other health systems, and to catalyze preventable disease outbreaks.
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