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?

This would not bother me one bit (if one of them was a vocal anti vaxxer who spent time talking about how the vaccine will kill us all, that would make me not want to spend any time with them because that would be annoying, but the actual lack of vaccine would not).

I think he just needs to go back to work tbh.

There's quite mixed opinions on here at the moment. When teachers said they felt vulnerable going in and seeing whole classes in a small room with no ventilation they were told they were being overly dramatic and to just get on with it. Now those wfh are being encouraged to go back in they're being told they should insist on risk assessments etc.

I'm almost 50 and still to have my second vaccine & have worked all through. Other teaching colleagues with ongoing health issues have also had to just get on with it. We have no clue who has had a vaccine & we're not allowed to enforce testing or mask wearing.

Is your 50 year old colleague still shielding then? Not going out to shops, no socialising etc.. Bet they're bloody not, just got too comfortable working from home like many others is my guess.
Does he realise that many people he'll come across when accessing various services won't be giving him their vaccination status?
The vaccinated don't seem to have much faith in the vaccines.

@converseandjeans

I do think people need to get on with it but CEV people - especially those who are likely to have a poorer response to the vaccine - are different to the average population.

It bothers me but we are in a large office with around 100 people, many who are not willing to have the vaccine.

Not much I can do about it.

@MorriseysGladioli

I can't say I blame your colleague. Of course nobody has to state whether they've been vaccinated, that's entirely their right, as is the choice not to have it. That doesn't mean that someone who is vulnerable has to work with them. That's his right.

Well, it is of course his 'right' to hand in his notice and seek another job if he's not happy in his current one, for whatever reason.

Which is what he will have to do if he refuses to work with colleagues due to their vaccination status.

I’ve been in work throughout the whole pandemic
I work in a nursery and none of the children are vaccinated obviously
It really doesn’t bother me because I’m vaccinated which is the important thing
A bit of perspective is what you need

[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 couldn't agree more, the whole response has been massively out of proportion to the risk. Business cannot survive much more of this.

If your colleague is CEV then presumably he gets a flu vaccine every year but your healthy colleagues don't? Has he refused to go to work if people hadn't had the flu vaccine in the past? I don't think this situation is dissimilar, except the colleagues have chosen not to have the vaccine rather than never had it offered at all. I'm not saying that to be flippant, my dad is CEV and he only found out after ending up on a ventilator for 2 weeks when he caught the flu a few years ago. Since then, he's had a flu vaccine every year but his colleagues don't.

He's never had a flu vaccine before but will this winter.

I think he's just complaining but will go back when required.

I spend six hours a day in a windowless room with thirty unvaccinated people. I’m generally pretty happy if they don’t sneeze directly into my face to be honest.

I’m nearly 36 weeks pregnant and only received my first vaccine a couple of weeks ago. I’m working on the assumption that it won’t matter from my perspective* that my class are unvaccinated, as I’ll surely have some protection by now. I may be off the mark here, but isn’t that how vaccines work?

(*Just to be clear, I don’t think it doesn’t matter if my class get ill! Two of them had parents hospitalised with covid over Christmas, I really really don’t want them getting it now too)

I’d expect people who have chosen not to get vaccinated to wear a mask at work for the rest of the pandemic.
No vaccine for any disease is 100% effective and nobody who is vaccinated knows that they definitely have immunity.