I feel undecided.
I can see both sides of the argument. Logically, given that people in care homes are typically vulnerable, then vaccination seems logical. If someone can't be vaccinated, my gut feeling is that often (not always) that will be either that they are generally antivax, in which case I wonder what else they're anti that might affect residents, perhaps in relation to hygiene and treatments for illnesses; or that they are in some way immunosupressed, in which case the question is whether they should be working in a care home anyway.
But I hesitate to lump together all that don't want to be vaccinated because there must be lots of logical reasons, for example, as Fiz points out, in relation to pregnancy & parenting.
Which leads me onto reasons for being wary. I pick up on the mention of understaffing. Caution - my political views affect my views on this.
I believe that understaffing right now is the tip of the iceberg. For instance, there are a lot of European staff working in the care sector and post-Brexit rules are an obstacle to EU staff recruitment. It may be that Priti Patel thinks an influx of Hong Kong refugees will make up for loss of European workers in various areas of employment but my gut feeling is that even if she's right, it will take time.
Of course, covid-19 has left many previously employed people out of work, but are they the people with the right attributes, talents and experience? It remains to be seen.
Meanwhile large swathes of the care sector are already struggling financially because of asset-stripping, so paying extortionate rent on property they previously owned and other tricks of the asset strippers, leaves them with less money for staff, including money to pay decent wages and to train staff.
So I suppose the bottom line is the question of what the statistical overlap is between low-paid care home staff and not wanting to be vaccinated.
What a horrible situation.
