colleagues not vaccinated

[TheBullfinch]

It's expected that from 1st August, our office staff will be asked to return to work in the office.

In a small office of 8, 4 have not had the vaccine (ethical, religious and anxiety related reasons given).

Would you br happy to return to work in this situation?

@ElephantMoth - mumps has 88% efficacy, there are fairly regular uni outbreaks where unvaccinated plus those it hadn't worked for get infected. I'm not sure what you don't believe from that poster, I know someone who got mumps despite vaccination, though more mildly than their unvaccinated flatmate.

I think there are a number of issues/things to ponder:

• vaccines are roughly 90% effective so there is a small percentage where the individual is not protected. People will worry about being in that group
• people worry about the unvaccinated as it allows for easier spread and so allows for mutations to develop that might evade a vaccine
• how would you know the vaccine status of colleagues?
• we really don't want to discriminate against people for not being vaccinated as that will not be good for society.

Um, yes. I've been working throughout! I'm not having the jab yet due to being pregnant. I work in a department with 30+ others.

You don’t have a choice if you want to keep your job. There’s no law saying you have to be vaccinated. These posts about going back to offices are making me really angry, just get back to work like a high proportion of the working worked already are.

Worriers are losing the run of themselves over this. If they are worried that covid would hit them very hard, they can have the vaccine. Why put pressure on others to have it if they've had it themselves

It wouldn’t bother me as I’ve been vaccinated so I view myself as being as protected as possible . Would still wear a mask indoors and socially distance as much as possible / feasible . Work in NHS so been travelling to and working throughout anyway albeit with appropriate PPE .

As previous posters have said, some people have worked with unvaccinated colleagues since the start.

Right now, quite a lot of people work in situations where out of 30 odd people they are the only ones vaccinated with no SD or mitigation in place.

I think if you have been used to working from home with limited social distancing for 18 months it seems quite a risk to go back to the office.

People in care homes, hospitals etc and many many people have had to realise and accept that government does not care if you get infected. With full reopening most people will contract covid but the vaccines will mitigate the impact of this if you are lucky enough not to have caught it already.

From 19 July, not catching covid is down to your "taking personal responsibility"

@LightasaBreeze

Sounds like he wants an excuse not to return to the office, if it wasn't that it would be something else.

This. His colleagues medical information is none of his business.

I'm CEV, cannot have the vaccine. It's not just this that we are vulnerable to. Where was all this concern when the flu and shit bugs were ripping through communities? Nowhere, instead endless posts about how stomach settled 12 hours ago and school are being unreasonable because they won't allow my child back into school.

And if you've had the vaccine, why did you bother getting it if you have no confidence in it?

It astounds me recently how many people know other people’s vaccination status

I work in a large industry and have done throughout. I come into contact with many people daily and not once has anyone been asked about their vaccination status. I am also high risk.

Like another poster said further up, people need to get back to work like they did before many of us haven’t had the choice to work at home throughout.

@Flowerlane

It astounds me recently how many people know other people’s vaccination status

I work in a large industry and have done throughout. I come into contact with many people daily and not once has anyone been asked about their vaccination status. I am also high risk.

Like another poster said further up, people need to get back to work like they did before many of us haven’t had the choice to work at home throughout.

Some people make a big deal about telling everyone they're not having the vaccine, like some kind of demented badge of honour. It's just virtue signalling that they think they appear smarter than everyone else by not following the crowd.

I left work due to this - this and some very dodgy HSE policies and people coming into work with fevers and coughs (prior to testing), no hand washing and no masks.

I knew that two people were anti vax and they didn't believe in the virus, shared a small office with them and six others with zero ventilation within it and thought why chance it?

I do think we will see employers insisting staff have the vaccine though come Winter because its going to be a shitstorm in a teacup for staffing levels within companies if people are back, not vaccinated and there's another wave. Particularly with the bloody app.

All my colleagues have been vaccinated,or so they say. They could be lying for all I know because strangely enough I haven't demanded proof of vaccination.

Go back to work, some of us have been out there for months or the whole pandemic. If you're that bothered then find a job that only requires you to wfh.

My last place it was the opposite. There was a few that did get the flu vaccine wouldn't stop going on about it from the moment the appointment was made. The same virtue signallers were also doing the nhs clap until it finally ended.

@AureliaStars

I do think we will see employers insisting staff have the vaccine though come Winter because its going to be a shitstorm in a teacup for staffing levels within companies if people are back, not vaccinated and there's another wave. Particularly with the bloody app.

You do realise that you can still get the virus, albeit milder, if you have had the vaccine. So regardless of vaccine status, just like other viruses that rip through companies, there could still be staffing issues.

@canigooutyet of course, but you are less likely to catch it or transmit it.

And you are less likely to have a severe version of it; I was off for eight weeks with covid and I had it quite mildly - but I had clot complications afterwards.

Why do you think care home staff are being made to have it?

Businesses will do everything they can to limit staff transmission and sick leave.

@StillCalmX

Worriers are losing the run of themselves over this. If they are worried that covid would hit them very hard, they can have the vaccine. Why put pressure on others to have it if they've had it themselves

People have lost all perspective on this, the risks are tiny for the vast majority of people. This is not bubonic plague.

@boobot1 the risks aren't tiny for businesses though, the risks of 8 people isolating for ten days are pretty financially messy for most businesses.

Do you know what other vaccines they have or haven’t had?
Does your CEV colleague worry if they’ve not had their flu jabs every year?
Perhaps a risk assessment needs doing for your CEV colleague, but otherwise I think we need to respect everyone’s choices and do what we want to do to look after ourselves as best we can.

Respect their choices, but tell them to keep 2m away from you and keep the windows open. Respect works both ways.

[quote AureliaStars]@boobot1 the risks aren't tiny for businesses though, the risks of 8 people isolating for ten days are pretty financially messy for most businesses.[/quote]
I'd assume they can work from home in that scenario. Any one of the vaccinated people could test positive and cause this too though

We know the vaccine reduces but does not eliminate the risk of transmission. However, that doesn’t mean vaccinated people should gloat that they’re a better person that someone who is not vaccinated. I’m fully vaccinated and CEV with a condition that means I do not mount a good response to vaccines but I absolutely cannot get on board with demonising those who aren’t.

I'm a CEV teacher so I have no choice other than to have 30 unvaccinated people in a smallish room with me at any one time with no social distancing - and about 120 different contacts a day.
It sucks, it really does, but you do get used to it because otherwise the fear would eat you up.
This seems like an easy win - you are all adults, there are only 8 of you. Just keep ventilation, masks and/or social distancing to make things safer for your CEV colleague, especially given the increased outbreak risk from 50% of you being unvaccinated.

You cannot guarantee though that you will get it milder considering that there are fully vaxed people currently in hospital with CV.

And lets be honest, the only reason that care home staff are now required to have the vax is because of the monumental fuck up caused by government decisions last year.

There is also a concern how this will impact getting staff in, especially as it was hard to find staff before all of this.