This thread is just so typical of society when something goes wrong in care.
Refusal by some to even acknowledge that the system has screwed over the elderly, vulnerable and their care workers right from the start of this, and before this too with money saving and corner cutting schemes, shutting down those that raise it by saying it's a different issue - it's not.
Care workers and their patients weren't seen as financially worthy enough to protect from other illnesses for years, put directly at risk by the policy of sending untested patients into care homes, not provided with basic PPE, expected to take financial hits (that because of the low wage they're on, have a massive impact on their lives) to isolate with symptoms or even at first with a positive test, patients not just expected but it was enforced to not see their families for a year except through a window or on a screen.
That's before you get to the low bar already set for care standards in general, minimum staffing ratio's, training and poor wages and job benefits that are the minimum standards allowed by law.
And how has the government and care providers addressed this?
By floating an idea that care workers need to be forced to have this vaccine because they have a duty of care they're not taking seriously.
The care workers are the ones not taking their duty of care seriously? When you consider the above that is beyond the reach of care workers to change?
The government and care providers have done this deliberately to avoid the issues that should be addressed urgently, that were always present but that covid have highlighted with results in lives being lost in great numbers. The very first opportunity that they've had they've deflected concern over those things, usually raised by the people they're targeting - care workers - by making a policy that insinuates that care workers need to be made to take their duty of care seriously, when there's already a 75% uptake of this vaccine.
The vaccine is a wonderful thing, it's going to protect so many vulnerable people, but floating an idea like this has had exactly the desired effect, it's made people turn away from the issues that have caused this utter shit show in care that are beyond the scope of the staff 'on the floor' to highlighting instead, that 25% of care workers need to be forced to take the vaccine, because actually that's the real issue.
As someone else said, we're an easy target, a target they're successfully discrediting so that our concerns about how all this is being handled at higher levels, is ignored and shouted down.
And people have done just that. I'm not shocked, it's the same each time.
Losing 25% of unvaccinated care workers is not going to improve the fundamental issues that plague care, that have been highlighted by covid, they are very much still going, but instead of talking about them, people are actively shutting those concerns down in favour of demonising 25% of the work force.
Nothing will ever change while that happens.