Attitudes toward COVID‐19 vaccination status disclosure in the provider–patient relationship: Findings from a population survey

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic ignited heated discussions on social media as well as in the medical, legal, and political communities, about whether health‐care providers should have the right to refuse to see unvaccinated patients. Another discussed idea during the pandemic, though it attracted less attention, was about patients' right to learn about the vaccination status of their health‐care providers. In this paper, we examined public attitudes toward these two rights using data from a cross‐sectional survey conducted in South Dakota in the summer of 2021. We utilized registration‐based sampling to recruit participants. The survey collected data on some of the most significant variables reported in the literature that shape people's attitudes toward COVID‐19 vaccines. Specifically, participants provided information on their age, gender, educational level, household income, COVID‐19 vaccination status, stress induced by the pandemic, and political partisan identification. The health‐care providers' rights as well as the patients' rights were gauged with one item each using a five‐point Likert scale. We analyzed data from 573 respondents (M_age = 56.6 years, SD = 16.48), which showed that older participants, those with higher levels of COVID‐19‐related stress, and vaccinated individuals expressed higher support, while Republicans expressed lower support for the two policies. Gender, education, and income did not influence participants' attitudes. Although the findings might have limited generalizability to populations outside South Dakota, they offer valuable insights for developing comprehensive ethical codes where vaccination status might be at the center stage for clinician‐patient relationships in future pandemic responses.