NHS hospital uk
© Peter Byrne/PAHealth secretary yet to make final decision on whether to bring NHS in line with care home sector in England
NHS staff have been warned they could face a mandatory requirement to be vaccinated against Covid, with the health secretary saying he is "leaning towards" making the jabs compulsory for staff in England.


Comment: If he's considering mandating these experimental injections, either they're critical to the situation or they're not. For him to say that he's 'leaning towards' a decision, despite these staff having managed through the supposed peak 'waves' of this manufactured crisis demonstrates that the mandate is clearly not critical. Notably, a number of other, albeit select, countries - including Italy, France, Switzerland, and the US - are acting in lockstep and they're rushing through mandates as well, whereas Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, are talking about dropping all restrictions and 'going back to normal'.


Sajid Javid said he had not made a final decision, but the move would put NHS staff in England broadly in line with the requirement for care home workers.


Comment: Note how inconsistent this 'science' is.


It comes as the chancellor is expected to announce £5.9bn for NHS England as part of financial measures this week to clear the backlog of those waiting for tests and scans, which has been worsened by the pandemic, and also to buy equipment and improve IT.


Comment: One wonders just how much of this IT spend will go towards the vaccine passport infrastructure? Because, considering the NHS' current problems, more hospital computers won't save lives, more experienced staff would. However by mandating the injection the government and the NHS knows they will lose desperately needed, experienced staff, but apparently they have other priorities: "Frightening" shortfall of 50,000 doctors for UK's NHS this winter, healthcare staff 'quit over the summer' - BMA



Critics have said that as well as resources, the government must address the fact that there are not enough staff to support services.

"There are around 100,000 that are not [vaccinated in the NHS] at this point but what we saw with the care sector is that when we announced the policy ... then we saw many more people come forward and do the right thing and get vaccinated, that's what I hope, if we can do the same thing with the NHS, we will see," Javid told Sky News.


Comment: So they're resorting to coercion.


"I'm leaning towards doing it [mandatory vaccinations]," he added. This was echoed during a later interview with the BBC Radio 4's Today programme, where he said it was the "direction of travel".

"If they haven't got vaccinated by now then there is an issue about patient safety and that's something the government will take very seriously," Javid said, declining to say when the move would come into force. But he added: "I don't want to put a timeframe on it but it wouldn't be months and months."

uk vaccination rate
He also said he would wear a mask in the House of Commons chamber on Wednesday for the chancellor's autumn budget because it would be crowded. But he stopped short of urging Conservative MPs to follow suit, as he told Today: "The guidelines are clear: it's for people to make a personal decision on how they see the risk of them and those around them, and this is obviously a workplace setting, so it's going to be a decision for them, but I can speak for myself."


Comment: The behavior of politicians has become ever more brazen; these restrictions are destroying people's lives but apparently whether they follow them is a 'personal decision': UK minister claims MPs can make "informed" choice over mask wearing, lockdown threatened if public do not take precautions


NHS leaders had a "mixed" view on mandatory vaccines for NHS workers, said Dr Layla McCay, the director of policy at the NHS Confederation.

She told Times Radio: We've spoken to our members about this, and it's a bit of a mixed picture because most of them agree that in some ways, mandating the vaccine could be quite helpful to make sure that more people get the vaccine.

"But on the other hand, if some people decide they don't want the vaccine that could lead to staff recruitment and retention problems and we're going into this incredibly challenging winter.

"If we start to lose staff during this time that could be incredibly challenging, so it's a real balance."

Health workers should get vaccinated as a "matter of professional pride", a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has said.


Comment: The JCVI also advised the government that there was no significant benefit to jabbing children, and yet the government went ahead with the roll out in schools anyway, so why should health workers take advice from the JCVI about 'professional pride'?


Jeremy Brown, a professor of respiratory medicine at University College London hospitals, who sits on the JCVI, told Sky News: "If you're frontline NHS staff dealing with patients and meeting the general public you should be vaccinated - it's a professional thing, it's a safety thing.

"We know that quite a few infections [that] have occurred in the hospital have potentially come from staff rather than patients. And if you're not vaccinated, I feel, you shouldn't be dealing with patients or the general public - whether it should be compulsory it is always a tricky thing but I do think professionally each person should be vaccinated."

He said he would not answer a question about whether staff should lose their jobs if they were not vaccinated, but added: "I think they should change their role, perhaps, not lose their job.

"I'm sure there are exceptions where there is a reasonable reason why somebody hasn't been vaccinated or doesn't need to change their role, but in general if you're dealing with a patient on a regular basis, you should be vaccinated as a matter of professional pride and role."