Direct Support Professionals and COVID-19 Vaccination: A Comparison of Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Direct Support Professionals.

Howard et al. (2023) asked U.S. direct support professionals if they got the COVID-19 shot. They used the same big National Core Indicators survey that tracks DSP workforce data every year.

The team compared staff who got the shot with those who did not. They looked at age, schooling, and the people each DSP supports.

Seven out of ten DSPs were vaccinated. Vaccinated staff were older and had more school years.

Unvaccinated staff mostly said they worried about safety. They also served more individuals who had skipped the shot.

Beck et al. (2021) saw higher intent than uptake. In Ontario, 82% of disability workers planned to vaccinate before the roll-out, yet L et al. found only 70% actually did in the U.S. The gap makes sense: plans often shrink when side-effect stories spread.

Howard et al. (2023) extends its own data. A sister paper splits vaccinated DSPs into early and late groups. Late adopters were younger, lower-paid, and mostly people of color. Together the two papers show education and income steer both the yes/no choice and the speed of the shot.

Anderson et al. (2020) and McQuaid et al. (2024) link low pay and weak benefits to higher turnover. The vaccination study adds a new angle: the same low-resource staff are also less likely to get vaccinated, stacking risk on an already shaky workforce.

You now know the unvaccinated DSP in your agency is probably younger, less educated, and scared of side effects. Offer short, plain-language science sheets, paid time to get the shot, and on-site clinics. These steps close both the vaccine gap and the morale gap.