To insist on vaccinated carers

[Oblahdeeoblahdoe]

One of the carers who goes into my elderly mum has refused the vaccine (she told mum) I'm really annoyed and want to request to the management that she doesn't attend to mum anymore. I feel if she wants to do this job she should have the vaccine in order to protect her clients. I know there's no proof yet it will protect against transmission on but most scientists believe it will. AIBU?

It’s the carer’s personal medical information. I get why you feel you want it, but I don’t think you have a right to it.

Has your mum not had it?

I think YANBU. It’s their choice not to have it but also your choice to request someone else.

I wouldn’t want unvaccinated health workers or caters around my relatives either.

If your mum has had the vaccine then surely the only person at risk (through their own choice) is the carer?

Happy to be told I may be wrong...

You cannot make being vaccinated a condition of employment I don’t think. Have you requested information about their other vaccinations? If they refused to tell you would you refuse them on those grounds?

Yeah I'd rather not have a career for an elderly relative who wouldn't have it either. She told your mum, so that's her own fault if you ask for someone else.

Yes, mum has had her first dose of the vaccine. I was not thinking of naming and shaming but saying that we only want vaccinated staff to go into DM. It's very close up, personal care and DM has made a lot sacrifices to protect herself against the virus.

YANBU. But there was something on the radio about it this evening, and sounds like not very legal.

There are lots of reasons why not to have the vaccine (I say that as a vaccinated health worker). A common one is pregnancy, planning a pregnancy or breast feeding or another medication condition.
You don't have a right to that information or to know and make judgements on her reasons. As a carer I hope that she's wearing PPE (gloves, apron and a mask) and taking the same steps to reduce transmission that have been taken since the start of the pandemic.

Did you know which careers had the flu jab in the pre Covid world? Its a very similar thing, you have no right to someone's personal medical information, much as you could want to.

...saying that we only want vaccinated staff to go into DM.

Which they can refuse, because to grant your request could very well put them in the wrong side of the law.

Vaccine won’t stop it being caught or passed on.

I’d be most annoyed that a carer who is presumably coming into contact with many vulnerable people is telling them that she is refusing the vaccine which might make them also think there is a reason to do that and that they too should not get vaccinated. She shouldn’t be telling people that imo.

If your mum has had the vaccine then surely the only person at risk (through their own choice) is the carer?

None of the vaccines is 100% effective. It’s all about (dramatically) reducing risk. If I were a vulnerable person, I would want W carer who was minimising the risk to me.

Vaccine won’t stop it being caught or passed on.

This is not factual. Current evidence suggests a significant decrease in transmission.

I’d be most annoyed that a carer who is presumably coming into contact with many vulnerable people is telling them that she is refusing the vaccine which might make them also think there is a reason to do that and that they too should not get vaccinated. She shouldn’t be telling people that imo.

They’re not children. They can make up their own minds, and should.

No one is saying we must have vaccinated nurses/surgeons/porters or GPs ?

Try to take a step back and look at this calmly. The vaccination just like the flu vaccine is not compulsory. It is completely up to health care workers whether they wish to have the flu vaccine and the Covid vaccine. Their employer does not have the right to make them get vaccinated. I think you will be on tricky ground with this one.

Have a word with the management, they can't legally compel her to get vaccinated but you are well within your right to request that someone else give care if you and your mother are uncomfortable.

I feel if she wants to do this job she should have the vaccine in order to protect her clients.

You may feel this but employment law may differ

Have a word with the management, they can't legally compel her to get vaccinated but you are well within your right to request that someone else give care if you and your mother are uncomfortable.

But the employer can’t insist anyone tells them whether or not they’re vaccinated.

I also think it's bang out of order that she's sharing this information so casually with vulnerable people who may not have advocates for them. Worse is that she could be telling people in a way that might influence them to not get vaccinated too.

But the employer can’t insist anyone tells them whether or not they’re vaccinated

No but by requesting someone else there's more of a chance of getting a vaccinated carer, you know for a fact this one isn't so it's well worth asking for another carer.

@ItsJackieWeaverBitch

I’d be most annoyed that a carer who is presumably coming into contact with many vulnerable people is telling them that she is refusing the vaccine which might make them also think there is a reason to do that and that they too should not get vaccinated. She shouldn’t be telling people that imo.

That's another point! She shouldn't be saying to people in her care. Apparently she said, I'm not having that. She wouldn't lose her job they would just rejig the rota.

I do however take on board comments about medical staff not having it and not being vaccinated against other diseases as some other posters have pointed out. I have a lot of thinking to do.

This is such a tricky area isnt it? My brother looks after a man with special needs and his parents felt the same (dbro does not want to have it), so they served him his notice. Their choice.

Some of my nurse colleagues have refused it too for various reasons, I suspect if this became a thing where care staff / nurses / Doctors could not see patients without a vaccine we would be massively reducing our workload.

DIL works in a care home - fewer than 50% have accepted the vaccine, quoting all of the spurious conspiracy theories as the reason.

*Workforce