“Get Covid Vaccine” Or Find Another Job Health Secretary Says

Care workers in England should “get out and get another job” if they don’t want to get vaccinated, the health secretary, Sajid Javid, has said.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he said: “If you work in a care home you are working with some of the most vulnerable people in our country and if you cannot be bothered to go and get vaccinated, then get out and go and get another job.” “If you work in a care home you are working with some of the most vulnerable people in our country, and if you cannot be bothered to go and get vaccinated then get out and go and get another job,” he said.

NHS England data reveals that 84 per cent of staff working in older adult care homes have had two doses of Covid vaccination as of 12 September.

Nadra Ahmed, chair of the National Care Association, warned that the deadline needed to be extended for practical reasons rather than out of generosity to workers who are vaccine hesitant.

“We are not anti-vaccine,” she said, explaining that the sector “needed a bit more time to get people where they needed to be” or it faced a catastrophic shortage of staff which would force care homes to close.

Mr Javid said that he would not consider extending the deadline and stressed that it was imposed for the safety and benefit of care home residents.