Todd Gastaldo wrote:
In one study MDs refused hepatitis B vaccination - even when it was offered
free of charge:

"...the majority of physicians...failed to be vaccinated even when offered
the hepatitis B vaccine free of charge." [Clancy CM, Cebul RD, Williams SV.
Guiding individual decisions: a randomized controlled trial of decision
analysis. Am J Med, 1988;84(2):283-8]


COMMENT:

That was back when it was made from the blood of pooled donors. But it
had been carefully tested for HIV and put through 3 different rounds of
treatments, each of which was sufficient to kill HIV (not possible to
do for blood factor products, but possible for the vaccine). Finally,
the donor pool for the hep B vaccine protein was a closed one
consisting of carefully chosen HIV-neg chronic hepatitis B patients,
and not the same group of lowlife plasma donors that donated for factor
concentrates, and who were more likely to have HIV (and who ended up
transmitting HIV in factor concentrates in 1982-3). So many a doc made
the opposite decision for hep B. Including me, who had my first Hep B
vaccination shots in 1985.

By the time for my next booster in 1990, I believe a genetically
engineered product had been around, which had never seen human blood.
You could get one or the other, and I don't remember which one I chose.
Since then, the issue you bring up has been a non-issue. The vaccine
from human donors is long off the market.

SBH