Any Carers here who are not taking the vaccine?

[Maybevaccine]

It's apparently been confirmed now that it is compulsory for care home workers and other carers to take the vaccine.

I just got a job in a care home, and I've always said no to the vaccine. Mainly because of the things I've seen and read of people who've had the vaccine. Blood clots, death, rashes, and people still getting covid after taking the vaccine.

I don't know what to do now.

@Haffiana

Well, my HCP management took that line, 'if you don't like the impositions we are forcing on you, you can leave'. 40% of the staff just have. The 40% they really couldn't afford to lose.

Turns out they're not 'easily replaceable' after all. And the problem isn't so much 'solved', more 'means you now have to drive 35 miles to access that service'.

The winding down of furloughed wages means HUGE numbers of people will be let go in the next 2-3 months. There will be many, many people looking for a job.

Not only will there be plenty of applicants for the care sector, but ex-care staff who are left because they do not want to get vaccinated will also be competing with other newly unemployed for any available jobs.

I bet this won't result in the disappearance of the care-home staffing crisis, rather like the Brexit exodus hasn't resulted in an army of home-grown agricultural workers.

Many will very soon discover how hard, thankless and underpaid care work is.

And, dare I say, many of the would-be applicants will come from the same pool - suspicious of government, etc etc, who may therefore also not be keen on getting vaccinated.

And, Haffiana, as someone else has commented on MN about this issue, care-home staffing:

It's about socioeconomic group, its not because they are thick and uneducated.

The thing that people don't seem to realise is for many people from poor backgrounds (ie those most likely to be losing jobs once furlough ends), the state isn't a set of services you can access but a system that does stuff to you. Its not to be trusted, you know too many victims of it. You may have been a victim yourself. It can take your kids away, or put them in a special school or stop your benefits for any number of reasons. Now it can decide you have to have a vaccine for a job and then sanction your benefits if you don't have it.

It's not that you lack critical thinking skills, it's lack of trust. such people do not trust the state to act in my best interests because it never has.

I hope the original writer of this doesn't mind that I've lifted it and edited it slightly, but it is an excellent summation explaining why some care workers, and potential recruits, aren't all lining up.

@Nat6999

The government have made a massive mistake with this, an industry that is chronically short of staff & now even more are going to be leaving because they don't want to or can't have the jab. The ones who are going to suffer the most are the patients.

Could it turn out to be a good thing if it forces the government to to sort out the problems in the industry and prompts the workers to unionise?

I don’t believe in mandatory vaccines in general but my father in law is in a care home with advanced dementia, watching my mother in law be devastated by barely being able to see her own husband for a year is enough to convince me that anyone employed in care homes should be vaccinated.

@Smallkeys

I do understand why caters don’t want to be forced to take the vaccine. However it is important I would not like my parents to be cared for by someone unvaccinated. If it’s reframed in your mind that if you were to apply for this job again and the condition was being vaccinated would you take the job or not ?

Of course you don't want your parents to be cared for by someone unvaccinated, but what are you going to do when care staff leave and care homes shutdown, who will care for your parents then?

@MrsWhites

I don’t believe in mandatory vaccines in general but my father in law is in a care home with advanced dementia, watching my mother in law be devastated by barely being able to see her own husband for a year is enough to convince me that anyone employed in care homes should be vaccinated.

I don't believe in compulsory vaccination, full-stop.

Once you start qualifying it, where does that 'but' end?

@GabriellaMontez

there'll be no shortage of vaccinated people looking for work

That's a low benchmark for staff recruitment. Desperate... I wonder what kind of staff we can expect to see in care homes in future.

people who have no other choice, who are unable to get jobs in any other sector or industry and do not want to be there will be caring for your mum and dad

This vaccine has too many side effects.

Yes. Like not dying from COVID 19.

@IntoAir

This vaccine has too many side effects.

Yes. Like not dying from COVID 19.

Exactly. I don’t know anyone who’s experienced any side effects and I don’t know anyone who hasn’t had at least the first shot.

The vaccine doest stop you from passing it on though.

It makes it much less likely that people will pass it on. Nothing is 100%; but the vaccinated are (a) much less likely to get it in the first place; (b) even if they do get it, generally have a lower viral load so are less infectious.

I work in health care in hospitals and 99% of our patients are elderly. None of us are required to have the vaccine nor have we been asked. There are two who don't want it, I'm happy to have it.
I'm not a care worker but we run clinics all day.
Not sure why it's not obligatory for us.

@MrsWhites

people who have no other choice, who are unable to get jobs in any other sector or industry and do not want to be there will be caring for your mum and dad

I’m sorry but that already happens in care homes and we all know it. Yes there are a large number of excellent vocational carers who do it due to love and wanting to do the job, but let’s not pretend there isn’t a percentage in there who do care work becayse that’s all they can get.

How much of the "I'm not having the vaccine" is about not wanting to be told what to do by the government, and how much is due to fear and misinformation (of which there is still plenty going by the responses on this thread)?

I think that carers are indeed very underpaid and exploited, especially considering the very important work that they do. But getting vaccinated is not a major imposition. I think it would be unfair to expect it only of care workers and not of doctors and nurses, who also work with very vulnerable and sick people. But they should all have it, unless medically exempt.

The vaccination does protect you from getting Covid, especially if you've had both jabs. Nothing is 100% but it makes it far less likely.

As for potential side effects: these are rare. You are far more likely to die if you catch Covid than from the vaccine. You are far more likely to get blood clots from Covid (and from many other risk factors, from taking the Pill to long flights to staying in bed for any length of time) than from the vaccine.

I think that carers are indeed very underpaid and exploited, especially considering the very important work that they do. But getting vaccinated is not a major imposition
Yes it can be argued that getting vaccinated is not a major imposition, however I think that for many it will function as a 'last straw'
let’s not pretend there isn’t a percentage in there who do care work becayse that’s all they can get
Currently we have a percentage of care workers who are very unsuited to the work and do not want to be there, if they become the majority.... that's going to be bad for everyone ☹️

@Bluntness100

people who have no other choice, who are unable to get jobs in any other sector or industry and do not want to be there will be caring for your mum and dad

I’m sorry but that already happens in care homes and we all know it. Yes there are a large number of excellent vocational carers who do it due to love and wanting to do the job, but let’s not pretend there isn’t a percentage in there who do care work becayse that’s all they can get.

Yes it does to some extent. The unintended consequences of this may be that even more of the people working in care homes are there from pure desperation.

@Maybevaccine

Yes I agree, I'd need to do more research and read about the vaccines. It's just very scary to read about perfectly healthy people getting blood clots and unable to move as soon as they get the vaccine.

To those asking why I want to work with vulnerable people when I'm against the vaccine, well I thought wearing the PPE and getting tested every week was enough? Even before my interview I had to get tested at the care home. I don't know, maybe I was being a bit naive, but I genuinely thought PPE and weekly covid test was OK.

The risk of serious side effects from the vaccines are tiny. You are much more likely to catch and become seriously unwell with covid,

Everyone I know now seems to have been vaccinated and I don’t know of anyone with serios side effects. Most had a sore arm and or felt a bit tired. One felt a bit fluey. They had also had covid and said covid was much worse.

Weekly tests and PPE help but you can become contagious between tests, Lots of NHS staff have caught covid - in some cases from work and they are all wearing PPE so again it helps but doesn’t offer 100% protection (human error presumably plays a part too),

Sorry OP I think if you want to work in the NHS you need to get vaccinated.

Meant to add, ‘or as a carer’.

Get the vaccine, check the actual science & stop listening to idiots

Or get a new job, preferably away from people if you intend on carrying in being an antisocial git🤷‍♀️

@Maybevaccine

Yes I agree, I'd need to do more research and read about the vaccines. It's just very scary to read about perfectly healthy people getting blood clots and unable to move as soon as they get the vaccine.

To those asking why I want to work with vulnerable people when I'm against the vaccine, well I thought wearing the PPE and getting tested every week was enough? Even before my interview I had to get tested at the care home. I don't know, maybe I was being a bit naive, but I genuinely thought PPE and weekly covid test was OK.

I think you're a bit naive. But if you want to dedicate your career to working in healthcare then you need to be willing to do as much as possible to protect those in your care, like getting a vaccine. Healthcare is all about other people. If you're afraid of the vaccine, arent you afraid of catching something off the people you'll be working with. Maybe a different choice of career would be better suited to you. The odds of getting a blood clot from the vaccine are less than the odds of getting a blood clot from taking contraceptive hormones.

no one warn the OP about all the other vaccines they will be required to have for medical school / working as a doctor.

I’ve not RTFT but (honest question) if the vaccine doesn’t stop covid but only reduces the severity of it, how does getting the vaccine help you to protect others who are in your direct contact (eg care home residents). I can understand from an nhs point of view.. but if symptoms are only less severe then you’re surely more likely to pass it on if you aren’t aware you have it..

if the vaccine doesn’t stop covid but only reduces the severity of it,

It does both. It makes you much less likely to get it, and reduces the severity if you do get it.

if symptoms are only less severe then you’re surely more likely to pass it on if you aren’t aware you have

If you're working in the care sector/ NHS you should still get regular tests, even if vaccinated, as vaccination doesn't offer 100% protection. But in the case of Covid, viral load influences how contagious you are; and people who've been vaccinated are likely to have a lower viral load even if they get it, and therefore are likely to be less contagious.

@mrstt89

It's classism and misogyny. Most carers are working class women. It would be ok 👍🏻 fb they did the same with doctors but they won't...

The OP works in a care home. her clients are vulnerable (clue, they are in a care home.) If she doesn't get vaccinated, she poses a risk to people in her care. Elderly people are far more likely to die of Covid than young people. People with poor health and/or disabilities are far more likely to die of Covid than people without those problems.All the stats show this.

This is nothing to do with sexism and nothing to do with whether someone is working class. The OP, unvaccinated, poses a risk in her workplace.

FGS.