The CDC’s management and COVID-19 vaccine recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic: A healthcare worker’s perspective
Gail C. D’Souza-Rushton, Uttara Seshu, Liba Blumberger, Laraib Mazhar, Jessica M. Yingst, Jonathan Foulds, William A. Calo, Casey N. Pinto
Abstract
The CDC’s COVID-19 pandemic guidelines affected everyone, especially healthcare workers (HCWs) due to the high exposure risks, long hours and stress during the pandemic. Thus, understanding HCWs perceptions and acceptance of these guidelines were crucial to patient outcomes. Our goal was to investigate HCWs views on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) management of the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine recommendations.
Introduction
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in an estimated 1.2 million deaths in the United States (U.S.) between March 2020 to February 2025 [1]. As the leading public health agency in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) played a pivotal role in providing guidelines for prevention of disease as well as control of the pandemic [2].
Materials and method
Study population
Data for this study were collected from a survey that inquired about HCWs PPE strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recruitment was conducted by Penn State researchers and Pennsylvania (PA) Department of Health collaborators to HCWs in PA using multiple methods including direct emails through universities, hospital systems, organizational list-servs, organization specific social media, targeted health care related public social media, flyers, and direct recruitment.
Results
Participants (n = 580) were 83% female, 92% White, 3% Hispanic, with a mean age of 46 (SD = 12.66) years. Almost 75% of our sample provided direct patient care, and nearly 39% earned a bachelor’s degree (Table 1). Two themes emerged from our study and had mixed responses. Some participants praised the CDC’s management of the pandemic and COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, while others were critical of it (S1 Table).
Discussion
This study aimed to understand HCWs perceptions on the CDC’s management and vaccine recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The CDC’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic management was perceived with mixed feelings by HCWs. Some HCWs felt positively towards the CDC because they appreciated the CDCs continuous communication and reliance on evidence-based science for recommendations.
Conclusion
This qualitative study with a large sample of Pennsylvanian HCWs suggests that HCWs had mixed feelings towards the CDC regarding their management of the pandemic and COVID-19 vaccine recommendations. Governmental agencies should consider understanding HCWs perceptions towards the CDC so these agencies may work with HCWs to provide continuous communication and information regarding health crises in the future. Understanding positive perceptions can help CDC continue those practices, while understanding criticisms can help the CDC improve their current pandemic practices to inform their decisions for future pandemics.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank all of our collaborators for their contributions to this manuscript and their unwavering support in our research. We are also grateful to our HCWs for sharing their perceptions about the CDC’s management of the pandemic and COVID-19 vaccine recommendations.
Citation: D’Souza-Rushton GC, Seshu U, Blumberger L, Mazhar L, Yingst JM, Foulds J, et al. (2026) The CDC’s management and COVID-19 vaccine recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic: A healthcare worker’s perspective. PLoS One 21(8): e0354686. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0354686
Editor: Yang Ge, University of Georgia College of Public Health, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Received: June 5, 2025; Accepted: July 12, 2026; Published: August 20, 2026
Copyright: © 2026 D’Souza-Rushton et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Data Availability: The dataset file for this paper is available from figshare for download at https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/The_CDC_s_management_and_COVID-19_vaccine_recommendations_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic_A_healthcare_worker_s_perspective/29150273?file=54842513.
Funding: CP received funding for this project from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania Department of Health. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: Dr. Gail D’Souza-Rushton is currently funded by gift funds provided to Dr. Travis Masterson’s lab from the McCormick Science Institute. Dr. Jonathan Foulds and Dr. Jessica Yingst are supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health and the Center for Tobacco Products of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (under Award Numbers: RO1 DA048428: JF, UO1DA045517: JY). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or the Food and Drug Administration. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Dr. William Calo has funding from the National Cancer Institute - grants R37CA253279, P01CA250989, R01CA254659 and R01CA268017, CDC - grant 6NU58DP006587-01, and Pennsylvania Immunization Coalition – no grant number. Dr. Calo also received a one-time payment from Roche for a lecture offered in 2022. He also serves as a co-leader for the Pennsylvania HPV Vaccination Workgroup. Dr. Casey Pinto has a Roche honorarium and Hologic grant/funding. All other authors have no competing interests to declare.
