I have to have the vaccine or I loose my job

[wingingmumlife]

I am absolutely prepared to get flamed for this but I am really worrying.

I am 22 year years old, healthy and unvaccinated (by choice).

I am not anti-vax, I have had every single vaccine from being a child to now and my daughter is up to date with all of hers too.

I work in dentistry and myself and 4 other colleagues have been told we have to be fully vaccinated by April 2022 otherwise, we lose our jobs.

I just can't believe it has come to this. I feel like my human rights have been taken away. I'm not a conspiracy theorist and I am a big believer in science but as a genuine question ... Can someone please tell me why this vaccine is being pushed so much to the point where soon we probably won't be able to even go into a restaurant without having this vaccine?

I have to wear AGP PPE every single day for every single patient but this still isn't enough?

I test myself every single day, but this still isn't enough?

Can someone please help it make sense to me? That is a genuine question.

Im not looking for an argument and I'm not wanting anyone to tell me "how stupid I am" I just want this to make sense.

For anyone wondering why I haven't had the vaccine - the main reason being, I have severe health anxiety, ironic I know since most would think I'd jump for the vaccine, but at the moment I'm more scared of this vaccine then I am of catching Covid itself.

I just feel sick to my stomach at the thought of not having a job unless I have this vaccine, it really doesn't sit well with me but everyone on here seems to be supporting it?

But presumably you are quite happy for others take the small risk that comes with any vaccine so that lock down could be released and you can go about living your life? We would be in a bit of a sticky mess right now if everyone thought like you. It really is time to put your big girl pants on.

@SpookyPumpkinPants :

"The less sick you get with it, the less likely you are to pass it on."

I don't think that's true. I don't think that's a valid reason.

No one is being forced to have it, they have a choice.

Ok. It’s probably more a case of coercion. Pretty extreme coercion and it makes me very uncomfortable.

The vaccine makes a huge difference in how ill people become with covid. I had covid before the vaccine existed and it was the worst experience ever. I couldn’t breathe, the pressure on my chest felt like one of my kids was sitting on it, I was so unbelievably poorly for 3 months and no one could help me as it was Christmas 2019 and doctors were stumped. Roll on October 2021 and I get it again… this time I had flu symptoms and was exhausted for a week. Not nice but nothing compared to first time. That is why, from personal experience, I would advise people to get the vaccine and why I believe health care workers who may possibly be in contact with CEV patients should be vaccinated.

I don't think that anyone should loose their job for being unvaccinated, that does not allow choice and was never how the vaccine was promoted.
I was anxious about the science for some time and delayed getting the vaccine for this reason.
I travel frequently and was tested every 3days for work and before and after each time flying with 5days staying home. I have had over 100 per tests, all negative.
I have the vaccine now and flew the other day and did not have to present my vaccine certs at any point, checking in, boarding and at immigration entering or leaving either country. ( U.K and IRL, both with climbing cases)
I find it hard that the vaccine is being pushed so hard at this point when basic measures of checking certs, hand washing and masks are not being enforced by the authorities.
We have now reduced ourselves to penalising many who have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic by sacking them if they don't vaccinate.
In my county 99% of those 12 and up are vaxed, and cases are still very high. I have to wonder how effective the vaccine is long term if boosters are now necessary only months after getting double jabbed.
I'm sorry OP you are being put in this situation and it will not help the healthcare services of this country if many leave or are sacked from their posts.

I am from the NW and I know lots of people affected by Covid. One is dead, one was in the hospital for weeks and is now a former shell of themselves, I know 2 DC who were in the hospital for weeks with it and I know countless others who have had it, but are OK.

There is a global pandemic on and a very large number of people who have died caught it in medical or care home settings. My own relative, who died, caught it in hospital.

If I can work throughout the pandemic and then walk into a clinic and have my children vaccinated for both Covid and Flu to protect them and others, then I fully expect everyone else to do it, especially if you are in a health care setting.

The question that all the pro-jabbers studiously avoid is, why are they letting these staff work through the winter season unjabbed? This makes no sense at all. These jabs have been available for months, so this mandate could have been put into place in time for the winter season. But no, they can work throughout that, unjabbed, and once it's over and we're coming into spring they have to get jabbed or be sacked.

@Maskless
So are you saying everyone should be forced to have the vaccination then?

It’s odd that you think people should have been forced to have their jab as soon as it came out. I’ve had mine but I wouldn’t like to have been forced.
Surely the reason it wasn’t mandatory was so people can make their own choices. I don’t believe they should be taken away from anyone.

I think if you're willing to test daily you shouldn't lose your job over not having it. I appreciate that in your profession you're in close contact with vulnerable people, but surely daily testing would ensure you weren't putting anyone at risk?

Although daily testing might exacerbate your health anxiety, so maybe not a perfect solution for you either.

Sorry OP I don’t have much sympathy.
You do have a choice - start looking for another job, get your cv out there.

I find it strange that you suffer health anxiety about the vaccine but not about COVID.
Me too. If you look at the data just for a second, see how many lives have been saved by the vaccine.
I got contacted by Test and Trace recently as I'd spent a whole evening sitting next to and talking to someone who tested positive. I could have gone about as normal, being exempt from self isolating but I chose not to go to another event where I'd be sitting with someone I know is not vaccinated. But I happened to know about them and was able to do that. Plenty of exempt, possible positive people are now mingling with others they don't know are unvaccinated.

SpookyPumpkinPants :

"The less sick you get with it, the less likely you are to pass it on."

I’d agree with this, if you aren’t symptomatic then you are less likely to pass it on. We had someone in work with it, they were in work awhile, asymptotic, until they got anosmia and then the penny dropped. They had plenty of contact with some vulnerable staff in the meantime.

I am sort of in the same boat. But I am 20 weeks pregnant. Not aunti vax but at the moment to anxious to have it while pregnant because of previous m/c and it's personal choice if you want it get it if you don't then don't. It's no one else's business.
It's just one of those things we all can't change. I work in a care home. Not for much longer though. I thought it would have been pretty hard to find a job at 20 weeks pregnant but managed to get one 2 days after being told I have to leave due to not being vaccinated!
Have you sorted your issue?

@ThirdElephant That is heartbreaking.

I think it's awful that they're making it a condition of work. I work for NHS and am triple jabbed! But I still don't believe they should force people against their will. Its not as though its an amazing vaccine that completely stops illness and nobody else will ever get it again. If it was I could sort of understand it. People should be able to have their own free will. PPE works, so if people don't want to have the vaccine just carry on with that. I know 4 damn good health care professionals I work with who haven't had the jab and if we lose them we'd be absolutely buggered. It's a stupid idea.

I have had my vaccines and was pleased to do so
Pre vaccine availability I also had Covid which I caught at work in the NHS
Lots of my patients and 1 colleague died and others were seriously ill.
One of my biggest fears pre vaccine was that I would give it to someone and kill them. That was a much bigger fear than having it myself.

However now that patients are pretty much all vaccinated, 93% of healthcare staff are vaccinated and we are still wearing PPE and doing LFTs I cannot see why staff who have principled objections to the vaccine should be forced. We are not in the same scenario now as when lots of deaths were occurring. The risk is much lower now and yet now, after we all risked our health working through this thing, now they force vaccination when it is no longer so necessary.

This will backfire
There is a huge staffing crisis already due to post COVID burnout and Brexit so the last thing we need is to lose more staff
Trained and highly skilled staff will not be easy to replace and that will cause a far bigger risk than Covid now poses.

I think this policy is more about political posturing than safety and I am happy to work alongside colleagues who aren't vaccinated because it doesn't affect me. The risks of them catching it and passing it on now are negligibly different to those of vaccinated colleagues especially as they are more likely to be diligent with PPE and testing.

It' is your choice and no need to justify yourself.

You have the choice not to have it and your employer has the choice not to have unvaccinated staff working for them and coming in to contact with possible vulnerable patients.

That is it really.
Plenty of jobs out there in the restaurants and pub industry. I am sure you will find something.

NHS front line staff here...so no sympathy from me...I am already boosted and have not given any of my three vaccinations a second thought.

The PPE and procedure for AGP in dentistry isn’t sustainable because of the reduced capacity and increased cost that hugely affects patient care. However, the risk is from the patients (who don’t need to be vaccinated) and not the staff! Would you be able to work in a totally private practice?

Your health anxiety is your brain lying to you. Your ancient lizard brain that sees a sabre toothed tiger in every bush and prevents you from having an x ray, although you obviously didn’t have an embolism or you would have felt the effects of it by now. Your doctor seems very indulgent of your anxiety ordering xrays and prescribing beta blockers over the phone when as you say , you are a healthy young woman. What to do about your unreasonably demanding brain?
I would suggest a really good hypnotist. You have to want it though, if you secretly believe that the only reason you and your child are alive is because of your super vigilance, then you might not really want to embrace telling your brain to calm down.
The only reason old vaccines take so long is because it’s hard to convince funders of the validity and finding volunteers takes a lot of time. With Covid all of these problems were taken way, this is how fast vaccines would develop if funding was made available. It has been tested millions of times, this is not a hill you need to kill your career on. Your brain is sabotaging your career, if it wasn’t Covid it would be something else.

Hi OP, also work in dentistry, and also facing this too. To those who are saying we had to have hep b, yes we did, we signed our contracts and went in knowing we had to have hep b as part of our role. We did not go in and sign a contract that says if there is a pandemic we must take a vaccine that is still under clinical trials. I am also not an anti vaxer and have been very ill with covid and still facing the after effects which is why I am not ready for vaccine yet. A family member who was also very ill with covid had a very severe reaction to vaccine, it was like an overload to system. I would also like to choose the type of vaccine I have and would like to wait for novavax to hopefully get the go ahead here. We take more tests than anybody, wear more PPE than anybody. Many of our patients are unvaxxed, yet we still treat them. Before covid I read about tamiflu Vaccine and what that did to many NHS workers who were basically guinea pigs for it but nobody really talks about it. I don't have any advice for you other than don't leave, make sure you're dismissed as it could b possible that in the future when full data is available there may be a bit of a U-turn with this.

Just have the vaccine. Get it over and done with. I've seen young people dying of covid on ventilators all through covid and I dont want to die like thank you very much. We all have to be vaccinated by April or we're out. I have a mortgage to pay and my DiL to look after and I cant afford to be unemployed.

Sorry but your human rights are not being invalidated. You have a choice. You may not like the choice, but it is still a choice. Whatever choices in life we make have consequences.

It sounds like you've been indoctrinated. Not because of your decision not to have the vaccine but because of all the language about your human rights and the emotive language about fear of the vaccine.

Actually my main concern for the workforce in the NHS (including my own NHS dentist) and I currently sit here with a tooth abscess for which I am waiting for an xray and an extraction at the hospital...

...my main concern is more and more staff going off sick for whatever reason, covid, stress, working too many hours, stress of the pandemic, losing colleauges, workload being too extreme due to covid..

The more staff go off sick, the more difficult it is going to be for the workforce that hang in there.

I'm very grateful that I was even seen by my dentist even though the waiting times have created physical pain for me.

All this would be good enough reason to have the jab.

I had both and have booked my booster and so has my daughter.

Yes, I have reservations for both myself and my daughter but it was a pragmatic decision along the lines of better to do it for our mental health and her education she is sixteen...going to college than not to do it...

also for other people. She currently has only one functional a level teacher out of three. One is off with covid, another one left the job for mental health reasons...so we are effectively back to home schooling and remote learning to fill the gap...

I feel we need to keep some structure in society going.

This morning already I told me daughter off for leaving a glass on the floor as if someone stepped on it there would be a wait of five hours ish at A and E.

She has a fluish thing and can't go to college today.

I think you should have the jab.

I have health anxiety too, but did the biz regardless.

Get treatment. The problem is your anxiety not the vaccine. I for one would not like someone leaning over my open mouth who hadn’t been vaccinated. It’s disrespecting your patients-I work in the NHS and if you’d seen ICUs last year before we got the vaccine you’d feel differently. People terrified before they went on a ventilator that they’d never come out again-and often didn’t. People struggling for breath. If the vaccine wasn’t available, many, many more people would die.

a vaccine that is still under clinical trials

@nc4050 this is just not true. The vaccine is not still under clinical trials. With such a basic misunderstanding of procedures, maybe a career in a medical related field is not for you anyway.

@Callcat

It's so so wrong. A friend of mine is in the same position. You're not stupid at all.

Completely agree