U.K. Plans to Scrap Mandatory Covid Vaccines for Health Workers

(Bloomberg) -- Mandatory vaccinations against Covid-19 for frontline National Health Service and social care workers in England are set to be scrapped, the U.K. government announced, after warnings the measure would fuel chronic staff shortages.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid told Parliament on Monday a two-week consultation would be launched on reversing the controversial policy, after the “intrinsically less severe” omicron variant eclipsed the predecessor delta strain, changing the balance of risks.

“While vaccination remains our very best line of defense against Covid-19, I believe it is no longer proportionate to require vaccination as condition of deployment through statute,” Javid told lawmakers.

The change would help avert even greater pressures on hospitals struggling to keep up with the patient backlog built up during the pandemic amid already-high levels of staff vacancies. Without a policy reversal, they face losing tens of thousands of workers in April, when the requirement to be double-vaccinated -- currently enshrined in law -- is due to come into force.

Around 77,000 NHS workers are not yet fully vaccinated, Javid told Parliament last week. To meet the April double-vaccination requirement, they'd have had to have their first shot by Thursday.

Covid-19 Vaccines Made Mandatory for NHS Workers in England

The move is also likely to help improve the embattled Prime Minister Boris Johnson's relationship within his own Conservative Party after a slew of allegations of Covid rule-breaking parties in Downing Street during successive lockdowns damaged his standing. The policy on vaccinating health care staff was unpopular with many Tory MPs, who had put his government under growing pressure to dump it.

After the Telegraph on Monday reported the imminent u-turn, one of the policy's Tory opponents, Mark Harper, a regular critic of the prime minister, called it a “huge win.”

There have also been concerns about lower vaccination take-up among ethnic minority staff at hospital trusts, reflecting the lagging vaccination rates within minority communities across Britain.

Mandatory vaccination had been in place for care home workers since November, and it is not clear how many staff lost their jobs because of it. Protests against the policy have been held in several cities across the U.K.

The government U-turn forms part of the U.K.'s new approach to living with coronavirus, after the government last week lifted so-called “Plan B” restrictions in England, including mandatory face masks in shops and on public transport and guidance to work from home. Johnson hinted this month that he is also considering axing regulations forcing people who test positive for the virus to self-isolate at home for five days.