Why is vaccine uptake so low for care workers?

[Hamilbamil]

1/6th of workers haven't had it despite it being available and being urged to for months! We're at just under 80% take up for the country at large with most under 30s either still waiting or not even able to book yet for the youngest groups. It seems likely that we'll get to 90% without breaking much of a sweat!

I'm puzzled by this apparent correlation between being a care home worker and being anti-vacs. It seems totally bizarre, but there must be a reason.

BettyBag I think that's a fair point.

The word 'carer' is a bit problematic in itself.

People ask 'How can you be a carer and not care? Shame on you!'

Well, I'm a band 6 HCP and I don't care. I provide care, I'm good at my job, my patients appear highly appreciative of what I do. But I don't care in the same way a carer can do an amazing job but can also decide to not have a vaccination when she has read a lot of accounts of menstrual cycle disruption, for example.

She is allowed to care about her own reproductive health, over and above that of her clients who, incidentally are not required to be vaccinated.

As for uneducated etc, all of my fellow HCP workers are vaccinated, but it is a bit alarming how many now tell of disrupted and changed cycles, yet all we hear is 'it's nothing/ it's temporary' etc when we just don't know.

We didn't know about the AZ clot risk; then we stopped giving it to the under 40s.

@BettyBag

Yes its about socioeconomic group, no its not because they are thick and uneducated.

The thing that people on this thread don't seem to realise is for many people from poor backgrounds (myself included) the state isn't a set of services you can access but a system that does stuff to you. Its not to be trusted, you know too many victims of it. You may have been a victim yourself. It can take your kids away, or put them in a special school or stop your benefits for any number of reasons. Now it can decide you have to have a vaccine for a job and then sanction your benefits if you don't have it.

It's not that you lack critical thinking skills, it's lack of trust. I do not trust the state to act in my best interests because it never has.

I think you make very good points.

It's easy to be a service user and not understand what it might be like to be a victim of the impositions at the other end of the scale.

I have friends who work in the care profession and although vaccinated now they were worried about TTC in the next year or two and any impact on this or long term impact on fertility, unborn babies. While I'm sure the vaccine has been well tested and is as safe as it can be, I also recognise that there will be things that we just don't know yet because it's too soon.

I was waiting in line for a corner shop and overheard two people also waiting in line saying that the vaccine was a genocide tool to kill black British people. These two people were strangers and were just chatting in the line (I know because one was a drunk older man and the other was a young woman with a baby and he approached her). I made eye contact with the woman and laughed like “gosh get this guy” and she indicated that she fully believed what he was saying and wasn’t just going along with it! So I think there is massive amounts of disinformation going around which could be impacting uptake.

I think the part of the problem is people like some pps on MN. They disregard other people's fears as uneducated and look down on them, instead of trying to understand why they feel this way and understand their background.

Legitimate nervousness I would imagine.

Best one I saw was on here- a poster proud of her carer daughter as she’d refused the vaccine as she was “young, fit and healthy and there are others that need it more”.

No grasp of the fact that her being vaccinated would likely stop her spreading the virus round her care home…

Being fair:
The initial messaging around vaccination was that being vaccinated wasn't to be taken as stopping transmission ( because it wasn't the design of the vaccine to do so and science had no citable proof..)

the vaccine was a genocide tool to kill black British people.

Whilst this is clearly nonsense, I can understand how they might feel this way. Remember the recent government report that concluded institutional racism doesn't exist in this country, despite all the evidence to confirm it does? Add to that, the government's treatment of the Windrush Generation, the way that black people are treated by the justice system, the disproportionate number of black women who die in childbirth, I can completely understand their reluctance to trust that the government is acting in their best interests.

I find it had to square the belief that the immunisation is not to be trusted by some communities due to systematic past failures while at the same time seeing the elite, white population publically getting the same vaccine.
I do agree care home staff need paid time off to get the vaccine and for anytime needed off for reactions if needed

If you don’t get paid time off sick you will think twice. If you don’t get time off in work hours to go get it you think twice. If you are working long hours isn’t really any after hours time. If you are working long hours you are likely miss news or radio shows discussions al these issues months ago when jab first came out. So never felt like got your answers. Frankly, being sacked and not being able to do care when unemployed may be godsend for some people. Who only take it up because literally forced to by the job centre. No qualifications no skills but clean check so off you go.

I find it had to square the belief that the immunisation is not to be trusted by some communities due to systematic past failures while at the same time seeing the elite, white population publically getting the same vaccine.

In theory, black women receive the same maternity care as white women. The reality is very different. If you already distrust the system (with valid reasons), it's not unreasonable for that distrust to carry through to other areas such as vaccination.

@Moirarose2021

I find it had to square the belief that the immunisation is not to be trusted by some communities due to systematic past failures while at the same time seeing the elite, white population publically getting the same vaccine. I do agree care home staff need paid time off to get the vaccine and for anytime needed off for reactions if needed

Why not? They don't trust the gov so they may believe they are injecting different stuff to different race. If the mistrust is deep enough, they would believe anything that makes sense to them. That's why I think the comment like yours don't help.

If I were a care worker reading this thread, I would feel totally justified in believing that most people view care workers as expendable idiots and would therefore have zero trust or faith in anything that the powers that be told me I had to do.

I completely agree with this.

I have had the first dose of the vaccine because (for me) I feel the published risks are acceptable and I have no intention of ttc. However, given the appalling attitude of many doctors to period problems I do not believe for a second that women's concerns are being taken seriously. I'm not sure I would take the vaccine if I wanted children in the next year or so, despite being a professional, white woman. My lack of trust in the medical profession would likely be even lower if I were low paid and black.

@Miljea

The word 'carer' is a bit problematic in itself.

People ask 'How can you be a carer and not care? Shame on you!'

Well, I'm a band 6 HCP and I don't care. I provide care, I'm good at my job, my patients appear highly appreciative of what I do. But I don't care in the same way a carer can do an amazing job but can also decide to not have a vaccination when she has read a lot of accounts of menstrual cycle disruption, for example.

She is allowed to care about her own reproductive health, over and above that of her clients who, incidentally are not required to be vaccinated.

As for uneducated etc, all of my fellow HCP workers are vaccinated, but it is a bit alarming how many now tell of disrupted and changed cycles, yet all we hear is 'it's nothing/ it's temporary' etc when we just don't know.

We didn't know about the AZ clot risk; then we stopped giving it to the under 40s.

That really is quite a remarkable post.

Why not? They don't trust the gov so they may believe they are injecting different stuff to different race. If the mistrust is deep enough, they would believe anything that makes sense to them

Most likely they know that the vast majority of the clinical trial will have been done on fit, healthy adult white males. As they are seeing with the “elite” white population.

Fact is clinical trials don’t usually recruit enough women, children and ethnic minorities, and even them don’t separate out results to examine if the trial affects these sub groups differently.

The evidence is here on MN, which presumably provides a cross section across the population.
You only have to look at some threads to realise there are a large number of idiots, conspiracy theorists, and generally "I couldn't give a crap about anyone but me" types. Care workers are drawn from the same population. The hesitancy/refusal simply reflects a sickness in our society.

@Miljea

You’re absolutely correct in that carers don’t care. They provide it. As they should, but there is a difference.

Blimey...I'm speechless at this thread. I'm a care assistant. Thanks for calling me uneducated and lacking in critical thinking skills. I have a degree and a post graduate qualification and don't consider myself, or any of my colleagues, uneducated. Most of my colleagues have qualifications in care - I don't, so they are more qualified than me. I work in a care home because I love it. I've had both vaccinations and so have all the staff at the home I work in.
Nice to know how you're actually viewed by society.

time well unfortunately the stats speak for themselves. Despite being offered vaccinations early, a significant number of care workers have refused. Ditto NHS workers.

So it’s only right that we have a discussion about that.

@timetickson

Blimey...I'm speechless at this thread. I'm a care assistant. Thanks for calling me uneducated and lacking in critical thinking skills. I have a degree and a post graduate qualification and don't consider myself, or any of my colleagues, uneducated. Most of my colleagues have qualifications in care - I don't, so they are more qualified than me. I work in a care home because I love it. I've had both vaccinations and so have all the staff at the home I work in. Nice to know how you're actually viewed by society.

Was it your qualification that got you the job?

What qualifications were a requirement to your application?

Just because you are well educated does not mean its a requirement for the job. A lot of carers will be well educated. Some won't. It's not a job requirement.

You may feel its a criticism of you - it's not! It's peopme simply stating the fact. You have been Fly vaccinated - you are also not the problem!

It's going to become compulsory soon and rightly so. Get another job if you don't want to take the necessary precautions to protect the vulnerable people who are cared for.

@PrimulaPrimrose

Being fair: The initial messaging around vaccination was that being vaccinated wasn't to be taken as stopping transmission ( because it wasn't the design of the vaccine to do so and science had no citable proof..)

That's very true. Whether it was cited long and loud in order to make us still comply with lockdown, despite vaccination, I don't know.

But it was successfully implied, because it was my understanding, still, that having the vaccination meant you personally would be less ill, but that you could pass it on just as easily....!

Thus a young, healthy person might wonder 'why bother'?.... (like my DS...