It is wrong that vulnerable people can be reliant on potentially infected nurses and care workers when a vaccine is available
It is an irony of the UK vaccine rollout that, as healthcare workers inoculate the public, some are failing to have the jab themselves. By 20 February, more than a fifth of NHS healthcare staff in England had still not received their first dose of Covid vaccine, according to new figures. This follows data that Matt Hancock quoted last month suggesting that at the time only about two-thirds of care workers had taken up the offer of a jab, despite being given priority; in London, only half of staff in care homes for the elderly have been vaccinated.
Many of us are surprised by these figures – we assume that healthcare workers credit science, and always put care for their patients first. But there were always signs there would be a problem; we know from flu jab uptake over the years that many health and care staff don’t have the vaccine, despite flu being potentially deadly or disabling to vulnerable patients. Similarly, healthcare workers were never going to be immune to the ways in which race and class affects vaccine take-up in the general population. Research by the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS trust found that while 71% of white staff had received at least one coronavirus vaccine shot, that figure went down to 59% for south Asian workers, and only 37% of black staff.
