Counties with more primary care doctors had higher COVID vaccination rates--study

Counties with a high number of primary care physicians (PCPs) had higher COVID-19 vaccination rates, a cross-sectional study found.

Among 2,739 counties and county equivalents (87.2% of total counties in the U.S.), those in the highest decile of number of PCPs per 100,000 population had a 5.5% higher vaccination rate compared with those in the lowest decline (95% CI 2.6-8.4), reported Andrew Chan, MD, MPH, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues in a JAMA Network Open research letter.

Every 10 additional PCPs per 100,000 population was associated with a 0.3% higher vaccination rate (95% CI 0.2-0.4).

Greater participation by PCPs in vaccine distribution could be a potential strategy to end vaccine hesitancy, they noted, as "survey data suggest that a substantial portion of the unvaccinated population would be willing to get vaccinated if they had greater access to accurate information and receive encouragement from a trusted source." ...