Carers who lost their jobs in the 'no jab no job' policy say they have been left 'traumatised' after it emerged the vaccine mandate it set to scrapped but welcome the move.
More than about 80,000 care home workers lost their jobs overnight in November following the Government announcement that all frontline staff must be vaccinated.
The mandate which was revealed last March would also apply to NHS workers including doctors and nurses, who would have had to get jabbed by Thursday February 4 to keep their job.
But following warnings of crippling staff shortages should the plan go ahead for NHS workers in April, Health Secretary Sajid Javid met with ministers yesterday (Jan 31) to discuss shelving the legislation.
The U-turn has been welcomed by many in the care industry but has left carers who already lost their job three months ago feeling 'traumatised' and wanting their jobs back.
Louise Akester, 36, made headlines in November when she posted a video of herself sobbing after finishing her final shift as she was dismissed from her role at Alderson House care home in Hull, East Yorkshire for refusing the jab.
She has continued to campaign against the mandate on social media and shared a video on Tiktok this week welcoming the news of the U-turn.
She said: "If I hadn't had support... I probably wouldn't have got through all of this.
"Today is a positive day, because now that they are finally u-turning the mandatory vaccines for the NHS, surely to God they are going to turn it around for us carers as well because how do you justify one rule for one and not for the other.
"Everything else that has come out in the news recently about Boris Johnson partying. It's starting to really open people's eyes.
"I'm just so proud of everybody for standing so strong and not giving in.
"I know a lot of us carers have lost our jobs already let's hope now that this is the start of the turnaround.
"Let's hope that they realise what it is that they have done to us and how unfairly we were treated.
"The NHS have hopefully now been given the opportunity to have their jobs saved and we were never given that opportunity and that's absolutely disgusting.
"It should have never ever gone as far as it was, the vaccine should have never ever been mandatory in the first place.
"We shouldn't have lost our jobs, we should always always have freedom of choice.
"We were good workers who didn't deserve to lose our jobs so hopefully now things will turn around for us."
Sajid Javid met with the Covid Operations Cabinet committee yesterday after warnings that some 100,000 healthcare workers would lose their jobs overnight should the mandate go ahead as planned.
The NHS has already faced an unprecedented crisis at the end of last year as Covid infections and staffing issues compounded the already difficult winter period.
One NHS anaesthetist, Dr Steve James, made headlines when he directly challenged Sajid Javid on the mandate during his visit to King's College Hospital London last month.
Others on social media also spoke out against the government's handling of the policy.
One wrote on Twitter : "I'm crying here. The stress this has put my wife under and the tactics employed last week were unreal... This must never happen again."
Another replied: "I feel the same mate. This has traumatised my wife."
Meanwhile others called for care workers who were previously dismissed to be reinstated or remunerated for their time in unemployment.
Kieran Morgan tweeted: "Care workers who lost their jobs in November should be reinstated and compensated, if not they should sue, shouldn't have happened in the first place"
But not everyone agrees that scrapping the plans is the right move.
Posting on Facebook, Michael Walters said: "What a selfish attitude and very frightening for the patients."
Another user, Kathleen Tunstall added: "What's the difference between us and them.
"I know they have worked through the pandemic, I appreciate that.
"They make sure you have had your jabs etc before you can go in hospitals, so why is it not right that they don't have the jabs they push us to have?"
