One of the UK’s most controversial Covid-19 prevention policies came into force last week, when care home workers were told: ‘No jab, no job.’
It’s the Government’s much debated plan – the first mandatory vaccination order for social care workers to try to push almost 40,000 unvaccinated staff into getting both doses.
The same rule will apply to all NHS staff, but they have until April to get it.
Studies show the jab reduces the chance of passing on Covid by at least 50 per cent, and Ministers say the policy will ‘protect disabled and vulnerable patients’ who may not respond well to the vaccine themselves.
But Dr Chaand Nagpaul, a GP partner and chairman of the British Medical Association, called the policy irresponsible, predicting mass walkouts from NHS staff during the ‘immense pressure’ of the winter period. The care home sector already has about 105,000 vacancies and, according to a Government report on Thursday, the NHS could lose more than 73,000 staff by spring.
Care worker, 36-year-old Louise Akester from Hull was sacked from her job because she refused to get vaccinated against Covid-19
One care worker, 36-year-old Louise Akester from Hull, posted a video of herself crying minutes after being fired from her job for refusing to get jabbed.
While the deadline for jabs has passed, health chiefs say it will take a number of weeks before the effect on care home staffing levels becomes clear.
During the past week we spoke to a number of healthcare workers who are willing to sacrifice their job to avoid the vaccine, asking them to explain why. We have hidden their identities to protect them from online abuse.
‘Nursing is the only thing I’ve ever known, since starting as a nursing assistant in 1998,’ said one woman. ‘But I will not follow medicine down this dark road.’
A 23-year-old social worker said: ‘I honestly don’t know what I will do. If I was a carer then I would have left by now, no hesitation, but most carers haven’t spent three years at university doing a specific degree for their job. I’ve worked very hard to get where I am.’
Care home worker David, 66, who has now quit his job, told The Mail on Sunday’s Medical Minefield podcast that he and his wife caught Covid in February 2020 on a flight from New Zealand to the UK, which he believes granted him enough ‘natural immunity’ to protect the residents in his care.
He said: ‘I don’t see why my right to make my own choice should be violated. I am determined to stand by my principles. If that means you don’t want me working in your company – fine.
‘My natural immunity was well demonstrated this year. I’ve been working in the care home alongside patients – many of whom caught Covid – for six days a week for a year and didn’t catch the infection.
