Vaccines to be compulsory for frontline NHS staff.

[Workingman]

No jab, no job.

This must be done by April 2022, thus avoiding an exodus of reluctant staff over the winter.

This could be an irrelevant exercise.

We will still be going through winter with hundreds of thousands of unvaccinated HNS hospital and care staff and come next spring it is thought (hoped) that so many of us will be double vaccinated and boosted that the main epidemic will be over.

If it was thought to be necessary then, it should have been a priority when vaccinations started, but the fear was that many staff would elect to leave - and not be (able to be) replaced. That is still the fear, hence the delay.

[cromwell]

As the jab does not prevent you from getting Covid or from transmitting Covid, this move seems pointless.
Worse, it could be counter productive by causing thousands of trained staff to quit the NHS, leaving it even further in the mire.

[Suff]

It doesn't guarantee that you neither get it nor spread it crommers. however it reduces you chance of catching it by around 70% and your chances of developing it and transmitting it by a bit more than that.

It comes down to numbers. If all the staff are vaccinated, the number of people being killed by the staff drops dramatically. And that is, quite literally, how it should be looked at, presented and repeated to all concerned.

[Kaz]

Absolutely right Suff!

[miasmum]

I currently know 6 people with covid. I have also recently lost a 45 year old work colleague to complications of covid. She was a nurse, she was fit and she was double vaccinated. Apart from my friends 13 year old daughter all the people I know that currently have covid are double vaccinated.

I have known more people contract covid in the last 3 months than over the last 2 years

Not sure what that says about the vaccines to be honest

[TheOstrich]

Not sure what that says about the vaccines to be honest

Hypothesising: that the double-vaccinations degrade from giving us immunity far more rapidly than was anticipated?

Or a change in nature of the virus?

Whichever way, it's concerning .....

As for the compulsory vaccinations for NHS staff, I think I start from the position that I'd rather deal / interact with a person - in whatever walk of life, not just NHS - who was double-jabbed rather than a refusenik.
So whilst accepting nothing can be guaranteed, I'd like to see everyone jabbed, period. By persuasion or cash incentive first, yes, but if not .....

[cromwell]

There is a degree of authoritarianism that has come into our lives over the last 18 months that I'm uncomfortable with. And forcing people to be vaccinated is part of it.
I'm also not entirely sure that it is legal under the 1984 Health Act, the instrument by which the government has enforced lockdowns, etc.
Also I feel that there is every chance that Covid authoritarianism is but a precursor to the climate crisis authoritarianism. Certainly the concept that freedom is entirely within the government's gift, to give or withhold as they see fit, seems to have been accepted. It really shouldn't be.
We'll have to see.

Anyhow, I hope our Dr Evil look alike Mr Javid has a cunning plan up his sleeve to replace the thousands of trained and experienced NHS staff who are going to quit. Forgive me if I doubt it though.

[Kaz]

NHS staff have been required to have vaccinations as part of their job for many, many years. My dear mother-in-law had to have certain jabs back in the day. Surgeons have to have hepatitis jabs. It's part of their job, and their duty to their vulnerable patients. If I want to go abroad to certain countries I will need certain vaccinations - Becky did when she went to Borneo.

Nobody is forcing them to have the jabs, but if they want to work with potentially vulnerable patients they will be required to do so. It is a choice, and life is full of them.

[medsec222]

I quite agree Kaz. Surgeons in particular have to be vaccinated against hepatis and HIV. They can't operate otherwise. I am sure most of the medical staff are well aware of the importance of having the vaccinations. I have read a few times that a lot of care home staff are against having the vaccinations. It just puzzles me why this is so.

[cromwell]

Life is indeed full of choices.
And as Dr Evil is now dropping broad hints about banning over sixty fives from public spaces unless they get their booster jabs, a lot of people are going to have to make one soon.
Quite how he'd actually manage this is unclear.