HELEN BACH COLUMN: I agree with vaccines, but people need to know the facts

Health care staff are being told to have vaccinations against Covid-19

I can see why employers would like them to be vaccinated as they don’t want coronavirus unwittingly brought into a care setting by their staff.

Many have already chosen to be jabbed to protect the people they look after as well as themselves and their families.

However, as many double-jabbed people have still gone on to catch Covid-19, I would ask how effective is this new policy really going to be?

Again, I’m not an anti-vaxxer. I’ve had two doses of Astra Zeneca, as has my husband. My daughter has had two doses of Pfizer; she was adamant she wanted to have it as soon as she could so, in her words, she ‘can lead a normal life and go to university’. We’re waiting to hear about our ‘booster’ eligibility.

But I do completely understand some people’s reluctance and hesitancy about these relatively new vaccinations.

My mother has carers visiting her four times a day. She’s fully vaccinated herself, but I haven’t asked her care providers – who she pays for herself – whether or not they are vaccinated and neither has she.

Because we believe it is their choice.

They are young women who have either just had babies or are hoping to. I know this because they chat to mum about most things in their lives.

The current advice is for pregnant women to have the vaccination, and we’ve heard the tragic stories of some women who have sadly died with Covid whilst pregnant.

I totally understand a woman’s reluctance to have a vaccination while pregnant – or planning to get pregnant – because I would be hesitant in this situation too.

Pregnant women are advised not to drink alcohol, not to eat soft cheeses or shellfish etc, so it stands to reason that women are going to question and consider whether or not they – and their unborn child – are OK to have this vaccination.

Instead of telling healthcare workers they will lose their jobs if they don’t have the jab, how about giving them all the available scientific facts and trying to reassure them? Remember, these are the same people the nation was clapping every Thursday night and calling heroes not that long ago.