Telegraph is reporting vaccine to be compulsory for care home workers

[bathsh3ba]

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/03/22/care-home-staff-face-compulsory-covid-vaccination/

I feel quite uncomfortable with the idea of making any vaccine compulsory....

Thoughts?

@raviolidreaming

it's a 50/50 if I even receive my pcr result

You need to look into the procedures for how they're being sent. I've been on weekly swabs since June and have always received a result; I don't know anyone on regular testing who hasn't.

If you are prevented from working or participating in society if you don't have a vaccine, trust me, you don't have bodily autonomy

This is just hyperbole.

How is it hyperbole? If you're going to contribute you could at least try to make an argument for your opinion being the right one.

@Maverickess I agree that it's utterly repulsive to say that care home residents can be removed/refused if they're unvaccinated. At the same time, if a person believes that the threat of Covid is greater than any other risk, then logically, that must happen. (Although why on earth I'm expecting anyone to be logical about Covid at this stage is beyond me.) In the same way, if vaccination becomes mandatory for staff there cannot be exemptions for any reason - someone who is unvaccinated on medical grounds is no less likely to infect residents than someone who is unvaccinated by choice.

With regard to unvaccinated residents, I suppose there could be an option to admit them and keep them in some form of solitary confinement to prevent transmission. Perhaps their food could be passed in through a hatch in the door. Anything to keep the lepers separate.

I am comfortable with it being a condition for someone to start a job, not so much for existing employees.

raviolidreaming in what way is it hyperbole?

• because I believe it is hyperbolic to go from certain vaccinations being mandatory for care home staff (a job which is not compulsory) to being unable to 'participate in society' whilst retaining bodily autonomy as if the discussion is now mandatory vaccinations for all. But possibly I'm just in a bad mood.

I've worked in care for many years, never had to have any vaccine. Not even flu jab!!!

To all those people talking about the heb b vaccine for hospital staff, that is expected in that setting but not in care!

For those of you saying other jobs exist......do they??

Pubs
Resturants
Shops
Factories
Hotels
Gyms
Spas

All closed.
You tell me where I can get a job When unemploment is at a all time high.

If your all that concerned about seeing your familly members in care homes and the care they received off the unvaccinated staff, you could always care for them yourself.

I am unvaccinated. I wear full PPE and I because I'm unvacinated it doesn't mean I don't deliver a excellent quality of care.

@whymewhyme

I've worked in care for many years, never had to have any vaccine. Not even flu jab!!!

To all those people talking about the heb b vaccine for hospital staff, that is expected in that setting but not in care!

For those of you saying other jobs exist......do they??

Pubs
Resturants
Shops
Factories
Hotels
Gyms
Spas

All closed.
You tell me where I can get a job When unemploment is at a all time high.

If your all that concerned about seeing your familly members in care homes and the care they received off the unvaccinated staff, you could always care for them yourself.

I am unvaccinated. I wear full PPE and I because I'm unvacinated it doesn't mean I don't deliver a excellent quality of care.

it doesn't mean I don't deliver a excellent quality of care

I wouldn't want you looking after my mum.

Why don't you get vaccinated? I'm sure you will have had plenty of other vaccines in your life, why not this one?

@whymewhyme

Absolutely. If the choice is between voluntarily depriving yourself of an income in this economic climate and getting vaccinated, there's not much of a choice. Particuarly since many in the sector are paid below the living wage and won't have savings to fall back on. If they quit their jobs, they won't be entitled to UC for weeks and who is going to support their families? Don't expect any appreciation of nuance (or reality) from this lot though.

I am TTC and I would like to keep my body as natural as possible going forward, the guidance changes all the time and at times it is conflicting.I am not anti vaxx, i would just like to have the vaccine when i want it and not when my employer tell's me, i haven't been required to have a vaccine up to this point and before covid my employer didn't even insist on the flu jab.( which i had)

I don't expect much from you lot tbh but if you wouldn't like me to care for your mother, that's fine. You could always do it yourself but your not going to do that are you.

No idea why you would refuse.

If a bus driver lost suffered from sight loss and couldn't drive safely they would have to give up their job or get their sight fixed. If it couldn't be fixed they would sadly have to leave their job. That seems very similar to vaccination in care homes. Most people can make themselves lower risk via vaccination. Those who can't/won't take the vaccine are like the bus driver with cateracts and will have to look for a different job. Nobody defends the bus driver's right to drive with poor eyesight because they don't fancy having the cateract operation, even though that's a much more intuitive medical procedure than an injection.

I think my issue with compulsory covid vaccinations is that it may well end up needing to be an annual thing and it is not uncommon for people to have side effects that leave them feeling unwell enough to need time off work. This has an impact on quality of life as well as financially (no pay for first 4 days of sickness on SSP).

I don't think you can legislate for something that makes people sick.

I think that all those families paying absolutely eyewateringly & extortionately high fees to have their loved ones cared for in care homes should at the very LEAST be able to expect that staff are vaccinated.

(I do care for my parents at home and have had the jab btw)

All the people saying this will make it harder to get good quality staff and you will only be left with the dregs etc etc.
I can 100% confirm that the carers that have refused the vaccine in the care homes I work in are not the excellent carers they are all happy to protect themselves and their families and yes the residents.
We will not be loosing any of our decent carers only those who have used the following excuses:
I saw a lot on FB about the vaccine being bad for you.
I’m a healthy person already
I believe I won’t get Covid as I never get Flu.
One lady was worried genuinely as she felt the MMR vaccine had given her child Autism and I can understand her fears being tied up in a genuine experience in her eyes.
But the others? no we won’t be losing the best of our team.

I think my issue with compulsory covid vaccinations is that it may well end up needing to be an annual thing and it is not uncommon for people to have side effects that leave them feeling unwell enough to need time off work. This has an impact on quality of life as well as financially (no pay for first 4 days of sickness on SSP).

Dying of Covid or Long Covid is surely worse than feeling a bit crap for a couple of days?!

Jeeze get a grip!

@CrunchyCarrot

I don't like the idea of making any vaccine compulsory either. Where will that end? Surely then they'd have to make flu jabs compulsory, and pneumonia?

Slippery slope. And not a good one.

Exactly excellent point

@ilovebagpuss, what % of your staff would be removed due to no jab, how are you going to get enough good quality staff?

Only 8 out of 160 have refused at my site. So yes it is 8 new staff to find but we had 4 new starters last week so it’s not like people don’t want the roles.
Across the group I work in I believe it was 6% so far refused.
Our company has not issued this directive yet and I don’t believe they want to but families may demand it.

For goodness sake! There are people in the UK like teachers & the police crying out to be vaccinated.

Stop with the pushing the dangerous antivax scaremongering. Droves of carers are not going to walk out.

🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

January 2020 report:
"Adult social care is facing [stark] recruitment and retention challenges, with an estimated 122,000 FTE vacancies. This equates to a vacancy rate of around 8% for both the NHS and adult social care, compared with a vacancy rate of under 3% for jobs across the UK economy."

Oh well, all those people who lost jobs in hospitality. Maybe they will make great dementia carers.

I have had my first dose of the vaccine, but I really hate the idea of it being compulsory.
I do know that some jobs require various immunisations, and some countries, but I still hate the idea of it being compulsory.
I guess this means that this will apply to residents as well?
I still don't like it, although I know I am being illogical.

Vaccinations aren’t compulsory in care homes. Worked in a large chain - definitely not compulsory - as I don’t have them all.
Not were they compulsory in mil home - came up in conversation regarding flu vaccine, which no staff member opted for.
(I have had the covid one).

Oh well, all those people who lost jobs in hospitality. Maybe they will make great dementia carers

We might get a better handle on the abuse that happens in some care homes if it wasnt seen as the default setting job that any fucker can do!

How are people supposed to prove they've had it? Are vaccination passports a thing after all?

I'm just wondering why the government would tackle the issue this way when it will cause as many problems as it solves. I think they must see it as a way to achieve something less popular.

[quote BamboozledandBefuddled]@Maverickess I agree that it's utterly repulsive to say that care home residents can be removed/refused if they're unvaccinated. At the same time, if a person believes that the threat of Covid is greater than any other risk, then logically, that must happen. (Although why on earth I'm expecting anyone to be logical about Covid at this stage is beyond me.) In the same way, if vaccination becomes mandatory for staff there cannot be exemptions for any reason - someone who is unvaccinated on medical grounds is no less likely to infect residents than someone who is unvaccinated by choice.

With regard to unvaccinated residents, I suppose there could be an option to admit them and keep them in some form of solitary confinement to prevent transmission. Perhaps their food could be passed in through a hatch in the door. Anything to keep the lepers separate.[/quote]
I do support vaccination, like I said I've had mine, but the utter rubbish being said on here with regards to care work and it being an expectation of care to get vaccinations when you couldn't get a flu vax unless you paid for it, because the government didn't see the point in funding it and employers didn't want to fund it either, then bleating on at how the government have to do what is necessary and force care workers to have the vax or lose their jobs because they can't be trusted to do the right thing (despite a 75% uptake among care staff before any enforcement )

And how yeah, they fucked up but they've put it right now - by offloading the responsibility and blame onto low waged carers, instead of stepping up and bloody well doing something a lot sooner to help reduce the risks care staff posed to those they look after in even a few of the ways I described.

Oh and visitors are not a problem and no one should insist they are vaccinated before they visit, even though it's their relative they're protecting, the same relative they think care staff should protect for minimum wage pay, or lose their jobs if they have any reason, including allergies, illness or current pregnancy, to not have the vaccine that's New and with limited data for those groups of people.

The above sums up the attitudes towards care workers, and it's appalling.