Physician Heal Thy Self?

The UK's Covid-19 vaccination roll-out has been perceived as a great success. The jabs have mainly been administered by health workers in the country's National Health Service (NHS). In spite of this, about 15% of health service workers in England remain unvaccinated (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/17/fears-frontline-nhs-staff-are-refusing-to-get-covid-vaccine). The numbers of health workers coming forward for a jab has, apparently, markedly reduced over the last fortnight. This is raising concerns that some staff working in hospitals and care homes are actually refusing the vaccine. Some policy-makers feel that vaccinations should be mandatory for certain types of work in the NHS. Some health leaders, patient's group and unions are strongly resisting this suggestion, arguing that persuasion is better. This is a difficult one. It basically weighs the self-perceived safety of the individual against that of the people they have to professionally deal with. It could all turn nasty, if a coercered individual had a life-threatening adverse reaction to vaccination. Having said that, the greater the uptake of the vaccines, the safer all society will all be. None of this is new to me. I remember that one of my own sons had to be revaccinated against all childhood diseases (they wouldn't take our Welsh GP's word for it), before he was allowed into an Hawaiian school.