That would be a prudent idea, wouldn’t it?
Fears of the mass sacking of more than 70,000 NHS workers have prompted the Government to consider pausing its plans for compulsory vaccination for health service staff, i[News] can reveal.
A temporary suspension of the controversial policy is being “actively” looked at within the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) amid dire warnings from hospital trusts and GPs of the severe impact of staff shortages on services, sources said.
The need for a gap between doses means that anyone who does not get their first dose by February 3 will be told they will be losing their job, with little chance of redeployment.
With several Tory MPs vigorously opposed to the compulsory vaccination plan for NHS staff, not least because of the impact a staffing crisis will have on their local hospitals, a pause would also help Boris Johnson in his battle to avoid a confidence vote by his own party.
Pressure on the PM and Health Secretary to halt the mandatory jabs programme has intensified in the past week amid new internal Whitehall documents suggesting two jabs would not be enough to cope with the Omicron variant.
On the one hand, it’s the deadliest pandemic ever and everyone should be terrified and it’s a 5-alarm fire.
On the other hand, it is Sensible Policy™ to fire 70,000 healthcare workers in the middle of this deadly pandemic.
i‘s analysis of NHS England figures shows 80,092 NHS workers have not had a single dose of the Covid vaccine, and a Government impact assessment has warned 73,000 patient-facing workers are unjabbed.
Those who are medically exempt will be able to keep their jobs.
The Royal College of Nursing has warned that it will be an act of “self-sabotage” at a time when the NHS is suffering from staff shortfalls.
One London trust alone warned it could have to fire 1,600 staff, and several trusts across the country are understood to have asked NHS England to urge the DHSC to rethink.
One Government source said its line remained unchanged, adding: “We are cracking on with the policy.”
Trust The Science™. Science™ says to fire 70,000 healthcare workers in the middle of pandemic.
However, MPs have pounced on a little-noticed hint from Mr Johnson himself, when he told lockdown-sceptic backbenchers that “we will reflect on the way ahead”.
Tory backbencher and former Government chief whip Mark Harper, who is chairman of the Covid Recovery Group of Conservative MPs, told i: “Mandatory vaccination of NHS & social care staff is not justified by the evidence – two doses provide weak or no protection against infection [by the Omicron variant] and even after a booster it wanes quickly after 10 weeks.
“Practically, the NHS and our social care system cannot afford to lose tens of thousands of skilled dedicated staff at any time but certainly not now.
“It’s now urgent for the Government to rethink, drop the policy and deliver protection through testing instead.”
By now, virtually every government on the planet knows that vaccine mandates are indefensible. Vaccines™ do not prevent Covid-19 infection, and so there is absolutely no evidence that a vaccine mandate policy will prevent the spread of Covid-19 anywhere.
In fact, they make it more likely that Covid-19 spreads because they assume that vaccinated™ people don’t have the virus when many of them probably do.
Governments will charge on with objectively idiotic and indefensible policies, however, because they are stubborn and chiefly concerned with imposing their will on every last person in the country. They don’t care about health and safety, they care only about power.
“But sir, if we stay the course, we’re going to have to fire 70,000 healthcare workers in the middle of a pandemic.”
“I don’t care: they will RESPECT MY AUTHORITY!!!”
Good to know we’re being ruled by prideful idiots who care more about whether EVERYONE follows their rules than whether or not those rules actually make a lick of sense.
If they actually go through with this and fire 70,000 healthcare workers simply for not taking a vaccine that doesn’t work, you can bet the media will immediately begin freaking out over the fact that hospitals are overloaded with Covid-19 patients, and use it as justification to argue that everyone needs to get vaccinated™
Use a problem you created as justification to seize even more power: classic Western Elites.
The encouraging part of this, though, if indeed the UK government comes to its senses and decides not to fire 70,000 unvaccinated healthcare workers, is that it shows mass refusal to comply works.
They can’t fire everyone. And even if they do, they’ll quickly regret it.
You defeat vaccine mandates by simply refusing to comply with them.
But, as we just went over, it is precisely for this reason that the government would be all the more determined to fire non-compliant individuals, even if it means crippling the healthcare system.
They cannot allow the people to figure out that widespread refusal to comply works, because then the people will keep doing it.
It’s essentially a big game of chicken between the government and the unvaccinated healthcare workers. And the government is, as usual, 100% in the wrong here.