How should we deal with the groups who refuse to have the vaccine?

You can’t force people to be vaccinated against their will.

I assume there will always be some who remain unprotected.

It's like the flu jab, often the largest group refusing it are those working in the NHS, and it seems the same is holding true now for a certain percentage. Never underestimate the power of social media to turn people's minds, and there is a lot of fake news out there. Hopefully the more vaccination centres that are set up in mosques and temples, the more it will encourage the doubtful to go.

And of course there are those holding back 'to see how others are affected'. We now have over 7 million vaccinated with no long term side effects reported, I don't know how many more they want to watch before taking the plunge!

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

I do hate the idea of making it compulsory as it smacks of being in a dictatorship but if there are enough of these people to jeopardise the programme then maybe it should be considered.

For goodness sake, you cannot enforce your will when it comes to medical choice.

I was reticent about getting the vaccine but now that there have been so many vaccinated without problems I am going to get it as I want to be able to fly to see my grandchildren again and I suspect some type of certification will be required.

I do feel that NHS, care home workers, and carers should have to show they have been vaccinated.

Perhaps you’d like them sending to a nice penal colony? Obviously that isn’t a serious suggestion, but I don’t like the inference that something should be “done” with them. Education and information is the only way, you can’t force people to have a vaccine against their will.

I personally know some young women carers who have chosen not to have it as they may be trying to conceive this year .
Should they be ‘forced’ to ?

At the moment, all we know is that the vaccine protects you. It doesn’t mean you don’t have the virus or that you can’t spread it.

So actually you’re in no different a position to those who won’t have the vaccine except that it’s very unlikely that you will catch it and be ill or die.

We don’t have to deal with those who won’t have the vaccine. Nature will do it.

B9Exchange you say no long term side effect, you consider 3 weeks long term? what about the possible (i know social media) that it may cause sterilisation, we won't know till lots of younger folk have it then start trying for family. did see they could be warned to to try i the first few weeks after.

Peasblossom very good point.

Fear makes fools of everyone - fear of vaccination, fear of Covid being something that can't be managed.

Hopefully as the vaccination rolls out those fears will be reduced. Fewer people will get Covid and more people will have the vaccine and report few, if any, side effects. Over time the vaccine hesitant will become less concerned and reconsider. Ultimately the anti vaxxers will benefit from the 'dilution' of Covid across the population( and then claim some conspiracy...).

I think it will all work out eventually.

I agree with Blossoming education and information is the only way to convince people to protect themselves and the rest of society. Forcing people to have a vaccine goes against everything we believe in in this country. Social media surely must take the blame for the anti-vax opinions that seem so prevalent. I give an example, it is in my extended family and has shocked me and my DH. This person doesn't want a particular vaccine because ‘it will alter his DNA’ and he wants to have a child within the near future. He is educated to degree level and we are told he has ‘done his research’. The only explanation we can think of is that this family do nearly everything via FaceBook, it is difficult to get a message to them as they only use FaceBook messenger to communicate. I believe there are antivax groups on Face Book and can only assume that no, or very little, fact checking is carried out on the information that goes out from FaceBook and other social media groups. NotAGran55 perhaps this is why these young women are choosing not to have a vaccination.

Come on now! If we heard it was compulsory in Europe (as it could very well be in some countries) we would all shout about dictatorships!

You can’t send your children to school here without their vaccinations. Maybe they could do the same with workplaces? Imagine the furore though ,..

'ordinary' citizens, hard enough.

but the worry is that a large % of carers and NHS workers are refusing. I suppose it could be possible to say 'no vaccine, no job' perhaps??? but when there is such a shortage of nurses and carers- this is not an option.

I truly do not know what the answer is.

You see I really worry about how the pandemic is affecting society. Tattoos, and forced medical intervention. Do people have even the slightest understanding of the implications of forced medical intervention.

Apparently we need 85% of the population to be vaccinated for the the pandemic to reduce to manageable levels, achieve immunity and lift restrictions fully. I wonder if we will achieve that?

The National Care Association put estimate it’s between 6-8% of Care workers that have refused the vaccine when offered, which is more than we want but not a large percentage. It means 92% have taken it up.

But it doesn’t make any difference to potential infection of others. Vaccinated care workers can still carry the infection and pass it on, as far as we know.

I saw somewhere that it may well be that airlines etc will only carry people with proof of a vaccination.

Welshwife but if the virus can still be transmitted even by people who have been vaccinated, what would this rule solve? Better a negative test then.

Having to provide evidence of vaccination before being able to fly might encourage people

I don’t know about the .. how shall we deal with the groups of people that refuse to have the vaccine, there are many reasons why these people are refusing it seems, some are waiting to see what happens in few months to some people that are having the vaccine, others haven’t made up their minds yet, some are into the conspiracy stories, some can’t through health reasons, lots of reasons! You simply cannot force people do do anything against their will

I can fully understand why pregnant women and those trying to conceive would be reluctant to have the vaccine as they were never tested on women in that situation.

However there are many other groups of people who for probably a variety of reasons will refuse.

Apart from education about the benefits as well as reassurances about their safety, I’m not sure what else can be done unless we go down the compulsory route which of course would be very unpopular.

I understand the concern about being vaccinated if you are already pregnant, but I don’t follow the logic of the argument about not having the vaccine because you are trying to conceive. There’s no evidence that the vaccine will result in any issues for you or your future baby if you do become pregnant, but there is a lot to say if you are pregnant and catch the virus it could have very serious consequences for you both.