Are you NHS staff? Will you or won't you be getting the vaccination?

[CovidStoleTheRainbow]

My apologies if there's already a thread. I did have a look and couldn't see one.

If you're NHS staff in a hospital will you get the covid vaccine?

If you will, what reassures you that it's safe?

If you won't get it, why not?

I work in a hospital but come Jan, I will be a community nurse so I'm not sure whether I will be very high up on the list (compared to A&E or HDU staff).

@Cloudburstagain

I really hope that once a vaccine is available and nhs staff have it offered to them first ( with obvious exception of pregnant staff) that all NHS are available for work and all appointments are available again, especially the community ones that are not affected by lack of beds.

As a teacher with hundreds of children in a bubble and no finding for extra cleaning, no PPE and just a home bought cotton mask for protection I am hoping teachers will be offered it fairly soon, otherwise it is going to be a difficult year for exam students in England with teachers isolating at home ( with days to get a result), or bubbles closed down.

The obvious problem after getting the vaccine here would be: whilst the community NHS staff are no longer super-spreaders of the virus to their patients, the patients we are dealing with will still be spreading it between themselves in care homes, GP waiting rooms etc.

I hope teachers are offered it really soon too.

I'm Nhs, not working with patients but working with the same service users. I won't be having it.

It seems quite a few won't be having it. If it is mandatory/needed for insurance etc there is going to be a big impact on staffing levels.

You'll find there's a huge percentage of NHS staff who refuse the flu vaccine every year. Including my MIL. Just because someone works for the NHS doesn't necessarily make them scientifically literate.

It’s really depressing the amount of ‘NHS frontline workers’ who seem to a) only be thinking of their own immunity and b) not understand how vaccines work! You don’t get side affects ‘years later’ and unlicensed doesn’t mean not tested thoroughly! Christ 🤦‍♀️

@BookWormBitch

It’s really depressing the amount of ‘NHS frontline workers’ who seem to a) only be thinking of their own immunity and b) not understand how vaccines work! You don’t get side affects ‘years later’ and unlicensed doesn’t mean not tested thoroughly! Christ 🤦‍♀️

Tbh, I think asking at the current time is a bit unfair. The vaccines results haven't come out yet, all the information hasn't been presented in a conscience, easy format with all the faq's etc. It's a bit of an arbitrary question and I can see why people would feel hesitant to have something first without all the info. Before it's given, people would have all the info to make an informed choice and I think the take up then will be high.

Im NHS frontline and regularly work with the exceedingly vulnerable if I can I'll be at the front if the queue for it.
Im shocked by the number of my colleagues who say they wont have it because we don/t know enough about it.
I reckon it will be offered first to all NHS staff in patient contact roles.

@NDSandG

Not sure if this has already been said but no drug/vaccine. We would have our arses kicked by Legal if we ever said this. What you want is a vaccine that has a positive benefit risk ratio in the disease you are developing it for and in the intended population. No drug is without risk..,,,in drug development, if you didn’t have a single side effect, you can be pretty sure you wouldn’t have much efficacy either. I’m not an NHS worker but I’ll take it when offered. I struggle to understand anti/vaxxers. These vaccines will be assessed by the regulatory authorities in the same way any drug will be. They will do a thorough job but the rare/very rare side effects won’t show up in clinical trials but only after it is made available to the broader population. Same as for any drug. The long term effects (if any) will show up after a certain time as for any other drug but I’d rather take the risk and have and not waiting 5-10 yrs just to be sure. Countries might mandate that you are vaccinated before they let visitors in and maybe workplaces/schools etc. could mandate it too. Will be interesting but keeping everything crossed that a vaccine offering some protection is going to be available soon.

That's why I have to wait ! I'm the very rare / as yet unheard of side effects that appear in the general population... So I don't really intend to be the one twat it kills !

I have a slight concern with the vaccine - that the level of immunity it gives will make asymptomatic spread more likely (see equine flu outbreak in Australia last year, caused by a vaccinated horse) so making potential spread to those who have a really bad immune system and are unable to have the vaccine less easy to avoid.

I think the growing evidence of reinfection (given the tiny numbers tested in the initial wave) is a concern as infection caused immunity is usually stronger and longer lived than vaccine caused immunity.

I agree that it is a grave concern that so many nhs workers would refuse it. Once it is available and refused may I assume that no nurse will ever complain again at having to work on the front line during a pandemic.

I assume all healthcare staff who would refuse the vaccine are at work, face to face and rendering a full clinical service to all patients.

I've been thinking about this - not NHS but social care in a residential setting with some medically vulnerable people (although the setting is learning disabilities support) in Germany. I've had the flu vaccination as have my whole family (no shortage here, everyone encouraged to have it). I'm vaccinated against Hep B, which is compulsory with my employer and paid for by them. However I am also worried about a vaccination rushed through so fast.

TBH the fact the Oxford vaccination is being waved around like a cross of St. George flag makes me worry about corner cutting in the race to be first - medicine should not be linked to nationalism and the fact that the vaccination development has been turned into a race between countries is concerning.

On the other hand our incidence per hundred thousand is now approaching 100, and a teen in my DD's class is positive and has breathing problems this morning - class is quarantined obviously, 4 positive tests although 3 asymptomatic, they have been quarantined for a week now, and I certainly don't want to take the illness to my high risk clients. Dd and I have tested negative so still working as normal...

OhTheRoses your post is deeply unpleasant. Being stuck between a rock and a hard place renders healthcare workers beyond your capacity for empathy does it?

ohtheroses
Yes absolutely am.

Just wondering why people are saying pregnant people shouldn't have it ? I had the swine flu vaccination when pregnant and was encouraged to do so by work (NHS) and pregnancy is seen as a risk factor for this virus so what is the difference ?

I already volunteered for the Oxford trial so I might have already had it (or a placebo). I was straight out of the gate, front of the queue to sign up as soon as they offered it.

The risks of a vaccine are going to be a lot less than the risks of getting COVID. By the time it's on the market thousands of people will have had it in trials so we can see if there are side effects. Anything that doesn't show up has to be very very rare or somehow weirdly delayed which I have never heard of.

OTOH thousands of people have had Covid and we know that there is a reasonable chance of death, serious illness and long term damage. That has to be a much greater risk than the virus and my job puts me at risk of getting it. I am a lot more scared of that than of some theoretical risk from a vaccine.

It's a balance of risks thing. I think you have to be illogical not to be able to see that the balance is squarely in favour of getting vaccinated. It does worry me that NHS staff are unable to weigh up health risks accurately.

I also hope it's going to be my ticket back to normal life. I bet people will feel a lot less 'worried' if they can get an immunity certificate so they can travel, see friends etc.

If the immunity is temporary then it'll be like the flu jab and I'll have one every year do that's not much of a concern.

Thousands of NHS workers apparently don't get the free flu jab either. Again I have really no idea why. I have had flu once in my life and I was really sick and never want it again. I have the flu jab every year and never had any ill effect other than a slightly sore arm.

I hope that a lot of the people posting here and saying they won't have the vaccine aren't actually front line NHS workers.

For anyone concerned, go to the actual research sites (there's one on the University of Oxford's page) and look at the history of the vaccines. That one's based on a vaccine that has been in use safely for decades, not made up from scratch. The reason they're being developed so fast is that usually they have to wait between stages, apply for more funding for the next stage, etc. Now, they have huge amounts of investment.

I don't work in healthcare and will be quite low down the list of priorities, but if I could have that vaccine (without taking it from people who needed it more urgently, obviously!) then I would in a heartbeat, because it'd not just protect me, but elderly relatives, and those around - and the risk from Covid is far higher than the risk of side-effects from the vaccine. It has to be, or it wouldn't have gone to the stage of asking for approval, rather than back to the drawing board.

I don't get why people working in health services wouldn't trust their research colleagues when it's all so transparent, with plenty of explanation about what's going on .

If I'm breast feeding does that mean they might now allow me to that the covid vaccine?

Excellent post from Theld.

@Parkandride

God I hope all these refusers work in entry level none clinical roles. I can't imagine those with science based degrees and who've had a hideous front line working year due to covid would misunderstand science and the routes medicines take to get to market to this extent.

This. A lot of critically impaired people on this thread. Worrying that they work in the sciences and in teaching.

I’m a nurse but I’m pregnant so will have to wait it out. If I wasn’t pregnant, I’d have it. I trust the science.

Agree it’s a balance of risks.
@duffeldaisy has hit the nail on the head.
If you’re thinking of not getting it, please inform yourself properly before making the decision. Getting yourself vaccinated protects everyone not just yourself. Am fairly incredulous that educated people at the frontline of the NHS would refuse to have it.

It’s simple - just say you can’t go on holiday abroad unless you have the vaccine. That is more likely to convince the naysayers than actual science (obviously I have to add that a few people have perfectly good reasons for not having it).

As I said before, I hope that refusers would be obliged to continue to wear full PPE and masks. It would be their choice to refuse the vaccine, but should not be their choice to potentially infect patients who had the misfortune to cross their path.

"As I said before, I hope that refusers would be obliged to continue to wear full PPE and masks"
ha ha, vaccinated or not, I will definitely still wear PPE