Colleague who does not want to get vaccinated

[JennieLee]

I've recently returned to work in a venue that has been closed because of Covid.

Was chatting with various colleagues about whether they'd had first and/or second jabs and one person who is of mature years - and rather anxious - said they weren't having vaccinations, though they 'weren't an anti-vaxxer.'

One of my other colleagues says this is because they have a condition which affects their immune system. I was already aware of this condition but on looking it up, the official medical body says there is no reason why people with this condition should be adversely affected by the vaccine. The official advice is to have it.

It seems to me that by working in proximity with her over prolonged periods I am at increased risk of carrying the vaccine and infecting others. (I've had both jabs.)

Is there anything I can do, I wonder...?

YANBU to be bothered about it, but you can't do anything about it.
If she has a medical condition and you're funny about it then you're out of order. If she is a good old run of the mill anti-vaxxer then anything you say will only prove the conspiracy theory.

All you can do is take measures you can to look after yourself.

@strangeshapedpotato

TBH I'd press management about it. And while nobody can FORCE them to have the vaccine, you can make their lives a lot less pleasant.

Their choice puts the rest of you at increased risk, not to mention your customers.

All this personal choice argument is just bullshit. It's ONLY a personal choice if it doesn't affect anyone else.

There’s nothing management could tell

Apart from tell you to get fucked.

@JennieLee

You don't have a clue where I work.

Much more contact with the public than an office. Many elderly and vulnerable service users.

Strong Health and Safety/Risk assessment culture. So I am puzzled.

Who have presumably been vaccinated at this point. She’s made her own risk calculation—you should keep out of it

The vaccine doesn't prevent you from ever catching covid!

Rather than fretting about whether the person you work with has had their jab just be happy in the knowledge that if you were to come down with covid you will be less likely than your colleague to suffer serious illness from it. That is the purpose of the vaccine after all.

I think you need to back off to be honest.

You cannot control everyone around you. Even if you could do something about your concerns, really do what? You will come I to contact with unvaccinated people, however much you don't want to... Be it on public transport, the queue at the supermarket, etc. Let it go.

It really worries me that it is becoming legitimate to police colleagues and friends etc in this way.

I normally never comment on these threads but my God, it’s depressing that there are apparently people out there who think they can decide for others what they have to put in their body. Even Googling to ‘decide’ for them if their medical condition allows them to get the vaccine. If I were your colleague and I found out you had been trying to diagnose me trough Google, I would go to management/ HR to make a complaint about you. It’s harassment trying to bully someone with a medical condition into a vaccine they don’t want by using Dr Google as a source. I almost can’t believe that this is real, are people really this entitled?

It really worries me that it is becoming legitimate to police colleagues and friends etc in this way.

It’s actually reassuring that so many people are appalled by the OPs behaviour. Let’s hope people like this stay firmly in the minority.

Im not an anti vaxxer or covid denier, I'm CEV and spent the most of the last year shielding, didn't get the summer socialising because my condition had me in bed sick for most of the summer, I was the washing my shopping type. I've had both my jabs.

This thread is like other extreme of the "we are being played" I can't believe I've seen people suggest OP contact management to make someone lives so unpleasant that they give in and do what they want. Id hope the person being bullied can take legal action against bullying colleagues and management.?

I can totally believe someone looking someone else's medical condition and deciding they know more than the person with the condition and the doctors treating them. I've had that so many times and people think because it's in Google then it must be as it says and that in either lying it my consultant is

I've been on the extreme anxious side of it all, washing shopping etc but I can't control or force other people to have medical treatment that I want them to have. I can only manage my own choices and options which is why for the last year I've kept out of the way of people who I know think it's all fake and a scam but I've also kept out of the way of people who think people should be forced via workplace bullying. I think both types of people are arseholes.

Omfg. This is a disgrace of a thread. Bunch of fucking arseholes in here. Saying no more for i will end up banned.

I work in a factory and have not had the vaccine yet because I'm too young to have been offered it. Should I be locked away from my colleagues?

Honestly, get a grip of yourself.

@strangeshapedpotato

TBH I'd press management about it. And while nobody can FORCE them to have the vaccine, you can make their lives a lot less pleasant.

Their choice puts the rest of you at increased risk, not to mention your customers.

All this personal choice argument is just bullshit. It's ONLY a personal choice if it doesn't affect anyone else.

🤯😱🤯

I can't believe what I'm reading here. The world has gone insane

Who needs body autonomy anyway 🤷‍♀️

I’m in the US where guidance is that fully vaccinated people can take off masks in most situations. As people are allowed to trickle back to the office, my employer is still requiring masks, but I am starting to wonder if at some point the rule will become you can be maskless if you can prove you are vaccinated. Seems like an easy solution for employers.

@Pinkpaisley

I’m in the US where guidance is that fully vaccinated people can take off masks in most situations. As people are allowed to trickle back to the office, my employer is still requiring masks, but I am starting to wonder if at some point the rule will become you can be maskless if you can prove you are vaccinated. Seems like an easy solution for employers.

But then that is a visual indicator of the people who have not been vaccinated... something that is private medical information. May as well get them to wear a badge too.

You can mind your own business. There's a thought!

No man is an Iland, intire of itselfe; every man
is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine;
if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe
is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as
well as if a Manor of thy friends or of thine
owne were; any mans death diminishes me,
because I am involved in Mankinde;
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

@strangeshapedpotato

TBH I'd press management about it. And while nobody can FORCE them to have the vaccine, you can make their lives a lot less pleasant.

Their choice puts the rest of you at increased risk, not to mention your customers.

All this personal choice argument is just bullshit. It's ONLY a personal choice if it doesn't affect anyone else.

What do you mean by "make their lives a lot less pleasant"

Yeah cos quoting John Donne poems makes everything you said less dickish.

@strangeshapedpotato

TBH I'd press management about it. And while nobody can FORCE them to have the vaccine, you can make their lives a lot less pleasant.

Their choice puts the rest of you at increased risk, not to mention your customers.

All this personal choice argument is just bullshit. It's ONLY a personal choice if it doesn't affect anyone else.

This is one of the nastiest and most worrying posts I have ever seen on MN. And it has been a lot less pleasant on here lately. But this is really a step too far. Grim.

I normally never comment on these threads but my God, it’s depressing that there are apparently people out there who think they can decide for others what they have to put in their body. Even Googling to ‘decide’ for them if their medical condition allows them to get the vaccine. If I were your colleague and I found out you had been trying to diagnose me trough Google, I would go to management/ HR to make a complaint about you. It’s harassment trying to bully someone with a medical condition into a vaccine they don’t want by using Dr Google confused as a source. I almost can’t believe that this is real, are people really this entitled?

This is worth repeating, in case you missed it first time OP.

@JennieLee

No man is an Iland, intire of itselfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Manor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.

As if citing poetry makes you seem less of a dick.

The vast majority of people have known someone who was seriously ill or sadly died as a result of covid

OK, I'm sorry for your losses, genuinely, the care home deaths were a scandal, but your statement is completely untrue. If there has been 100,00 deaths out of a population of 70 million then no, only a tiny minority will actually personally know someone who has died of covid. I certainly don't. You're talking about a virus that has absolutely no symptoms in the vast majority of people.