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.

@Mymapuddlington

There's a way out, with the vaccine

How? Having the flu vaccine every year hasn’t stopped people dying of flu

It has significantly reduced the numbers of fatalities. And the numbers requiring hospitalisation.

Leaving hospital beds and services free for those who need treatment for cancer, heart conditions etc, elective surgeries and those with traumatic injuries.
How in earth, this far down the line are people still failing to grasp this most basic fact?

OMG @Brondie319 you would be apoplectic with me I encouraged my 16yo to have the vaccine (was his decision). We are now a fully vaccinated household. Though I am worried about the extra head DP has and the extra toes DS now has

I've watched carers in a care home for people with dementia for a year. I've watched them come outside for their fag breaks pull their masks down smoke, pull them back up and go inside

They should be shot immediately.

@BluebellsGreenbells
I would need more than a cig if I worked with dementia patients all damn day

If you are a surgeon, you have to have had certain jabs or you are not allowed to do that job.

If you work as a carer, you should have the vaccine for Covid-19 or seek alternative employment.

Actually, scrap that last bit, everyone (unless there is a medical exemption reason, which is very few people indeed) should have the vaccine, as soon as they become eligible for it. Otherwise, we risk dragging this pandemic out for longer than necessary & killing people needlessly, due to stupid conspiracy theories read on Facebook or Insta. or pure selfishness: "it's my body, I can do what I like....".

I regret that the government has not utilised Covid-19 as an opportunity to get biometric I.D. cards through, by-the-back door. They would show who is vaccinated and who is not. It might also tell us if there are over 80 million people in Britain, or the fake figure of 66.65 million (2019 'data').

I'm not anti vax or anything but I have to say I dony quite understand making a vaccine mandatory. Surely it makes no odds as the risk is with the person who isnt vaccinated.

For example if OP isnt vaccinated and she catches covid then it may become serious and she will need hospitalisation. When she gets symptoms initially she isolates. There may be a chance that she comes into contact with the elderly before she gets symptoms but they are vaccinated so protected from anything serious and get a mild case.

If the OP is vaccinated then when she catches covid her symptoms will either be very mild and she may pass it on to someone elderly before she gets symptoms but they are vaccinated so the risk to them is lower. Or because she is vaccinated the symptoms are so mild they are asymptomatic and she continues to go to work and passes it to the elderly, who are vaccinated so the risk is minimal.

@Kettledodger

OMG *@Brondie319* you would be apoplectic with me I encouraged my 16yo to have the vaccine (was his decision). We are now a fully vaccinated household. Though I am worried about the extra head DP has and the extra toes DS now has

My 19 and 21 year old DC have had it too. Other than their ears falling off and the tentacles growing out of their sides all is well.

If the OP is vaccinated she is LESS LIKELY to catch or transmit COVID. The care home residents are therefore MORE LIKELY to be safe.

@duffeldaisy 1 in 50 die of covid?!??! Are you actually insane. The death rate is something like 0.3%

I hope someone has said the OP should be considering a different career. I can’t believe she wants a career in medicine but won’t follow global medical advice

"I read it also uses nanoparticles. I don’t think we have enough data on their safety"

Really? I don't know about you, but like a huge percentage of the population, I don't have a clue about science beyond the bits I read to catch up. That's not my field, not how my brain works, and so I've not studied it for a decade or more. That's why, when it comes down to the nitty gritty of nanoparticles, I leave whether we have enough data down to the people who know their nanoparticles inside out and who have scientific training to look at evidence professionally, who confer with their equally well-trained scientific colleagues across the globe, and who decide what is a risk and what is not. Because I know nothing about the large picture around nanoparticles or vaccines, and I'm pretty sure almost every poster here doesn't know about them to the correct scientific level either, if we're all honest. (Apologies to the scientists here who do!)

@ Sadsiblingatsea, like what, living!

@IndiaMay the OP MAY have it mild or she may have long covid and it may affect her for a very long time. The OP MAY not pass it on to an elderly resident but given that no vaccine is 100% and has never claimed to be ....say there are 50 residents then she COULD pass it on to 1 or 2 who will probably die if they contract it, not to mention anyone else in the community they may transmit to. But hey lets stamp our feet and say they will not make me do it

I can totally understand your concerns about the vaccine which has only recently been developed and while people are saying you have to protect vulnerable people in your care, the vaccine doesn't stop you getting it or passing it on it only protects you from developing severe symptoms so you could still pass it on if you contracted the virus - vaccinated or not!

[quote IndiaMay]@duffeldaisy 1 in 50 die of covid?!??! Are you actually insane. The death rate is something like 0.3%[/quote]
Out of interest. If the population is over 66 million. How much is 0.3%

"I read it also uses nanoparticles. I don’t think we have enough data on their safety"

Molecules are even smaller. Let's stop using those too.

share.upmc.com/2021/01/nanoparticles/

Yes such as not dying alone in hospital of Covid, or reducing the risk of transmission to others, or the potential to go on holiday soon without needing to isolate, or contributing to the country opening up fully again.

Why wouldn't you want to do something that offers those side effects on top of keeping your job?

The are working hard to get around this in the NHS

Most have been vaccinated the group that has the least take up in our trust is younger colleagues

Not what was expected. I think a few will change their mind once they start applying for roles and this holds them back

It wasn’t expected

You could maybe read science and statistics rather than the scaremongering?

Do you drink alcohol?
Eat processed foods?
Travel in a vehicle?
Use other medications?
Smoke?
Live somewhere with poor air quality?

Life comes with risks and I dare bet there are things you do in daily life that are more risky than a vaccine.

Covid is probably more risky to your clients than the vaccine is to you.

Are you a healthy weight?
Do you excercise enough?
Do you eat only for nutrition?
Drink enough water?

Unless you live some life of perpetual perfection you can't really think that the tiny chance of a blood clot is more dangerous than the disease, or indeed life itself.

@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.

Wow. Are you sure you'll be able to get on a medical degree ?

The vaccine does not prevent transmission.

www.aamc.org/news-insights/6-myths-about-covid-19-vaccines-debunked

Myth #2: The vaccines don’t really work that well — they don’t reduce virus transmission.

Most experts have been urging people to continue following public health guidelines, including masking and social distancing, even after they’ve been fully vaccinated with two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine — and after enough time has passed for those vaccinations to have taken effect (generally two weeks).

The reason for this recommendation is because while the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been shown to have 95% efficacy against illness (and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is 85% protective against severe disease), the clinical trials were not designed to test whether any of the trial participants contracted COVID-19 but showed no symptoms.

“The experts are saying that the vaccines do not reduce transmission, but that is an inaccurate statement,” Gandhi says. “Vaccines have always decreased transmission. What they should be saying is that the clinical trials were not designed to test for asymptomatic infection, but there is every biological reason in the world to believe that they will reduce asymptomatic transmission.”

There is already evidence to support this, she says. First, when the vaccines were studied in macaque monkeys (during preclinical testing), they did eliminate asymptomatic infection — researchers swabbed the vaccinated macaques’ noses and found little or no virus. Second, the types of antibodies that are stimulated by most systemic vaccines (IgG and IgA) do tend to block viral infection in the nose (and no viral load in the nose most likely translates to no transmission). Finally, when monoclonal antibodies are given to COVID-19 patients, those antibodies reduce the viral load throughout the respiratory tract, including the nose.

The most convincing evidence, though, is just starting to emerge among real-world data. In Israel, where more than 90% of those age 60 and over have been vaccinated, “cases have plummeted in this population,” Gandhi notes. “Not just hospitalizations, which we expected, but cases [asymptomatic infection] as well.” Moreover, data from vaccinated health care workers recently published in the Lancet and preprint servers show reduced rates of asymptomatic infection and low viral loads in the nose when swabbing after vaccination.

“I think that in a few months, we are going to be able to say with certainty that these vaccines not only protect you, they also protect those around you,” Ranney says.

[quote IndiaMay]@duffeldaisy 1 in 50 die of covid?!??! Are you actually insane. The death rate is something like 0.3%[/quote]
Apologies, I'd read it was 2% but it looks more complicated. And still more than 0,3%.

(From the BBC)
"The UK government's scientific advisers believe that the chances of dying from a coronavirus infection are between 0.5% and 1%.

This is lower than the rate of death among confirmed cases - which is 4% globally in WHO figures and 5% in the UK as of March 23 - because not all infections are confirmed by testing."

But even if it was at the very lowest of 0.5% (which would be unlikely as hospitals would be overwhelmed) then 0.5% of 68 million is still well over 3 million. It won't be like that now with vaccinations and with distancing, but if everyone refused the vaccine and just 'got on with it' that's what we'd be looking at. It's a variable stat depending on so many things, but this is one dangerous virus.