A third of caregivers will take coronavirus vaccine; Most against mandatory vaccination

Nurses and care workers said they do not want to be obliged to get vaccinated against the flu or the coronavirus just because of their profession. Research conducted by the NU’91 labor union showed that about 33 percent are ready to get vaccinated against coronavirus, should such a vaccine hit the market, and 35 percent plan to get a flu shot this year.

Two weeks ago, a spokesperson for Health Minister Hugo de Jonge told newspaper AD that there will not be a compulsory vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus. "There will be no discussion about that," the spokesperson said. Employers will not be allowed to require an employee to get vaccinated, but hospitals could prevent unvaccinated care workers from direct contact with patients, or from being staffed in intensive care units.

The union said it surveyed 3,700 healthcare workers, according to news wire ANP. About three-fourths of those surveyed said they were against an obligation to get vaccinated, saying the rule of law and the ethics of medicine dictate that someone's body is inviolable, and thus vaccinations should be a voluntary practice.

The same should apply to healthcare professionals as to other Dutch people, said Stella Salden, chair of NU'91. "The emotions and guilty feelings of nurses and caregivers are now being addressed. In this way the moral pressure is increased and that really is unacceptable," Salden said.

"Once there is a good vaccine, we would find it unwise and unacceptable if staff did not get it," a spokesperson for the Dutch association of hospitals NVZ said to AD.