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Abstract
Objective: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a global health emergency. Physicians are at high risk for COVID-19 due to their occupational exposure to infected patients. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the opinions of physicians, who are at the forefront of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, on prophylaxis and probable vaccination for SARS-CoV-2 infection through a questionnaire.
Methods: Between 25 July and 8 August 2020, survey questions were sent to message groups with physicians via messaging programs developed for smartphones. Two hundred eleven physicians with different titles and working conditions who answered all of the questionnaire questions were included to the study.
Results: The average age of the physicians participating in the survey was 39.3 ± 6.7. 186 (88.2%) of the physicians stated that there wasn’t an effective prophylaxis against COVID-19 and 190 (90%) stated that they did not receive a prophylactic treatment. Nineteen (90.4%) of the physicians who received prophylactic treatment stated that they used hydroxychloroquine. Although the number of physicians who had been vaccinated against seasonal influenza vaccine was 37 (17.5%), 167 (79.1%) physicians stated that if a COVID-19 vaccine with similar effectiveness to the influenza vaccine existed; they would be vaccinated.
Conclusions: The desire to administer COVID-19 vaccine among physicians is higher than seasonal influenza vaccination rates. Policies to increase vaccination rates should be followed in order to terminate the COVID-19 outbreak and prevent influenza co-infections.