I am an enthusiast for vaccinations but I never dreamt we’d make them compulsory. In my blog of 3/12/20 Vaccination Passports (desmondswaynemp.com) I said it was unthinkable. Nevertheless, compulsory vaccination for anyone working in a care home will be introduced later this year, that includes any tradesman entering the premises to do repairs, or whatever.
We haven’t had compulsory vaccination since 1853 – which was soon reversed because it swiftly led to a collapse in the number of people willing to be vaccinated for smallpox, such was their suspicion of the new law.
Of course, many clinicians have to have hepatitis vaccinations in order to practice, but they go into the profession knowing that. It is very different thing to turn round to a care worker mid-career and say ‘take the jab or lose your job’. This is no way to treat dedicated staff, who could well go elsewhere and do less demanding work for higher pay.
I have received desperate representations from a number of care homes who are already under-staffed and fear that they will have to reduce their number of beds or even close.
This extraordinary departure from accepted norms was dealt with in our Covid Potemkin Parliament in a mere 90 minutes on a motion that was designed to obscure its purpose. The Statutory Instrument was almost double-Dutch and referred merely to a ‘medical procedure’.
The Government’s Impact Assessment of the measure was withheld from us and the minister either wouldn’t or couldn’t tell us what was in it.
Democracy is under attack from within, ably assisted by Covid-19
Sir Desmond Swayne TD
