Mandatory Covid jabs for health workers

[WinnieSmith]

"Govt ‘absolutely thinking’ about mandatory Covid jabs for health workers, UK vaccine minister says"

www.rt.com/uk/525218-govt-thinking-mandatory-jabs-healthcare/

Should Covid jabs be mandatory for healthcare workers?

IABU - yes
IANBU - no

No

Roles need to be risk assessed, and those in the riskier ones, to staff or highly vulnerable patients (eg those with certain cancers, in whom the vaccine may not work well or indeed at all)

Certain jabs are already required in some roles, so there is no new policy behind this

Definitely not.

"Zahawi noted that there is a precedent for mandatory vaccination, with a requirement that surgeons be vaccinated against Hepatitis B. “So it’s something we are absolutely thinking about,” he revealed."

Yes definitely. In all care roles ideally

Ones that involve contact with patients - yes. I don't think those who are non public facing should be forced.

I believe there are requirements for NHS to have other vaccines though so I don't think Covid should be any different. I had to have Hep A and B to work in a lab. No job, no job.

No jab!

To clarify on the voting system!

I meant:

YABU - yes
YANBU - no

@AnneElliott

Would you care to elaborate? Are you a healthcare worker? I'm not trying to be goady here.

patient facing possibly, yes.

This is a difficult subject

Do you make this mandatory and infringe on people’s right to choose?

Or do you accept that as people have chosen do work in this profession, so they have an obligation to protect the patients they care for - who are often the most vulnerable in society, and if they don’t comply they need to find a new profession.

It is hard to compare this the same way as a blood borne virus like hepatitis as they are transmitted differently, but it is important to recognise that the concept of HCP transmission of any illness to patients is a risk and any steps to minimise the risk is a benefit

Would you want a chemo nurse treating you or a family member who hasn’t been vaccinated?
Would you want an operation by a surgeon who hadn’t had a vaccine?

I have just been in hospital and felt very vulnerable so I can’t imagine how an elderly or sicker person might have felt

I also have a high risk colleague who didn’t have the vaccine and was incredibly unwell with COVID and nearly died.

If you don’t want a vaccine I think that’s fine, but you may have to accept that frontline work might not be for you

Absolutely yes, fuck with your own life, fine, but fuck with someone elses? No

yes they should.
and if I knew anyone treating me had chosen not to have it, I'd be seriously questioning their medical and scientific understanding and prefer to go to someone else

@Menora

If you don’t want a vaccine I think that’s fine, but you may have to accept that frontline work might not be for you

Definitely yes - patients have a right to be safe when being treated. If those staff don’t understand their responsibilities, they are in the wrong job

There already are vaccines that are mandatory for healthcare workers.

It's not beyond imagination that other vaccines might get added to this list.

No I'm not a healthcare worker. My lab job was in forensics and so the vaccine was more for our benefit than our employer or the police who interacted with us.

But I just don't see the issue with certain professions requiring vaccines. If you don't want to have it then you can get another job. I have a friend in healthcare who couldn't prove she's had BCG (and she doesn't have the scar) so she had to have it again. I don't see Covid as being much different to that.

I think it is perfectly reasonable for all new jobs. Not so sure about existing employees though especially pregnant women.

Yes. Definitely

@AnnaMagnani

There already are vaccines that are mandatory for healthcare workers.

It's not beyond imagination that other vaccines might get added to this list.

Yes precisely. I'm not sure anyone is up in arms about the current mandated jabs?

If patient facing very much so, DS spent the year shielding due to being CEV due to his age he hasn’t been able to be vaccinated yet - I am hoping for later in the year - I would be mighty miffed if he was infected by a health care worker who had refused the jab.

If someone can’t have it for medical reasons then that is something that needs to be looked at and some sort of work around found to keep everyone safe

What about pregnant women or younger women who may be worried about future fertility (both reasons some of my NHS colleagues have not had the vaccine yet)? Also the flu jab isnt mandatory - should that be too?

No

@baldafrique

Definitely not.

I really don’t get this viewpoint at all - I don't just mean vaccine refuseniks in the health sector I mean in the wider community too and especially amongst the old.

Matt Hancock said a couple of weeks ago that the majority of people in hospital in Bolton were actually older people who have declined the vaccine and it got me vexed. Why pile more pressure onto the NHS (especially if you work in the NHS!) after the last 18 months that they’ve had to endure by refusing a quick, free jab that’s been confirmed to offer great protection - especially after the second dosage.

It’s selfish and it’s stupid.

My concern is that the NHS cant really afford to have current employees leave clinical roles - we are short staffed enough as it is!