UK may require NHS workers to take COVID-19 vaccine

LONDON  - The British government may require National Health Service workers to be inoculated against COVID-19 - a contentious proposal that was immediately criticized by opposition leaders as counterproductive.

The U.K. government's vaccine minister, Nadhim Zahawi, told Sky News on Sunday that officials were considering the move in hopes of preventing medical workers from spreading COVID-19 to their patients. The government has already asked the public to comment on a similar requirement for care home employees. "It’s absolutely the right thing and would be incumbent on any responsible government to have the debate, to do the thinking as to how we go about protecting the most vulnerable by making sure that those who look after them are vaccinated,’’ Zahawi said. "There is precedent for this. Obviously, surgeons get vaccinated for hepatitis B, so it is something that we are absolutely thinking about.’’