Live-in caregiver Covid protection. Am I legally allowed to ask the agency and caregiver if he has been vaccinated?

Imho, notify the agency of your concerns.

Since COVID vaccination is not mandatory for employment, it might be considered an invasion of privacy. Since COVID is a huge issue to you, it might be best to tell the agency and potential caregivers your concerns. Even with a COVID vaccine, there is a potential of a person contracting COVID infection, but great reduced. Ask how caregivers are screened during the pandemic. Ask about protocols that are required to reduce COVID transmission from caregivers to their clients. You might ask caregivers if they will get a COVID vaccine when it becomes available to them. If you employ a caregiver and he/she appears sick with any illness, you are within your right to ask them to stay away until better.

After in home side from an agency stated they were not getting a vaccine, called the agency and was told they could not require their employees to be vaccinated. There are many caregivers both at home and in facilities not getting vaccine.

This was just shared by my Director of Nursing:

As more and more folks are vaccinated against COVID-19, we have heard from some consumers asking to only have vaccinated workers come into their homes. If you get a call with this request, please educate the consumer that the vaccine protects the person vaccinated, and not necessarily others, so that is why masking and social distancing is still so important. The best advice that you can give a consumer is to be vaccinated, if their medical condition warrants, to continue to be vigilant, to practice good hand hygiene, to wear a mask when around others and to practice social distancing. If everyone entering a consumer’s home does the same, consumers are at no more risk having an unvaccinated person in their home.

According to the CDC:
·        The risks of COVID-19 infection in fully vaccinated people cannot be completely eliminated as long as there is continued community transmission of the virus. Vaccinated people could potentially still get COVID-19 and spread it to others.
·        Wear masks, practice physical distancing, and adhere to other prevention measures when visiting with people who are at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease.
·        Dr Fauci has warned that vaccinated Americans could still be infected with COVID-19 and pass the virus on to others "inadvertently," thereby necessitating mask usage until more Americans receive the vaccine or the level of confirmed infections significantly drops.

The vaccine does not prevent the vaccinated from getting Covid. Nor does it prevent the vaccinated from spreading Covid.

The vaccine was not promoted at first as something that would need to be annual or as a yearly booster. I believe in science but i also know science is not perfect. All one has to do is look at medication recalls and class action lawsuits from FDA approved medications to see the imperfections of science and the terrible side effects that can come to light years later. And this is an experimental vaccine that has not received FDA approval yet.

If YOU have all been vacccinated, then I would not be so concerned about a CG not being so--however, I do not know a SINGLE PERSON in healthcare who has not been vaccinated--in fact, the nurses were ahead of drs in terms of 'need vaccine'. Because they are far more hands on than most doctors need to be.

Once I was vaccinated a tremendous load of stress lifted from me. I believe in the science and was happy to get vaccinated.

If you MUST wear a mask to shop in most stores still, asking a CG to wear a mask would not be offensive. IF they have been vaccinated, the decision for them to wear a mask in your home is up to you. If they haven't, you do have the option of not employing them if your feel it's that important. Personally, I do, but that's just me.

Whats the point in being vaccinated if you are still terrified of catching covid? When people get vaccinated for the flu do they walk around scared they are going to get sick or just go about their lives? I really don't understand the purpose of the vaccine if you can still catch the virus or a variant of said virus. It seems like nothing has changed with the vaccine in play.

This is interesting. I guess asking if a certain person is vaccinated could be a HIPPA thing. But then, the person is coming into your home and I think you have a right to know if she has been vaccinated. I would think it would be a requirement of employment.

Your house, your rules.

You can certainly require proof of vaccination for someone in your employ. If they've been vaccinated, testing is irrelevant.

You can ask that they be masked; I doubt you can ask if vaccinated. If YOU are vaccinated that is the important thing, but I would still see to it you and your elder wear masks when caregivers are around. While there are in recent studies about 25 who DID get covid following vaccination, only one needed brief hospitalization and none were dead at the end of it all, out of thousands. So very unlikely you would become infected if you are vaccinated, esp with the two shot moderna or Phizer.

Yes, as a client you have a right to have someone vaccinated before they enter your house. I would think this would be a requirement of the agency. Healthcare workers should have been done by now. If not, tomorrow my State is opening up to the younger ones. So if your aide does not have it, you can request she gets it ASAP.

Antibodies do not build up until a few days after the injection. These shots are not a guarantee. They just had in the news we may need to get ongoing boosters. We are still suppose to take precautions. I would require a mask while she is in ur living space working closely with you. She doesn't need to wear it in her room.
She will be coming and going so you have no idea what she does outside your home and you can't control it. But in ur home you can.

Since she is a live-in, you hope that the relationship between u will be a good one. She should be made to feel comfortable. But you need to remember to keep some professionalism. She is being paid to care for you. She will have time off to be with friends and family she does not need to bring "strangers" in your home. Set boundries and stick to them. If you have any valuables, put them away in a safe place. I worked with a woman whose son constantly kept money out on his dresser. She told him to put it away. His response was his friends would not steal from him. Her response was, you also don't leave temptation out where they see it.

Always remember, your house, your rules.

You could ask the caregiver to mask while in the house.
You can ask the caregiver to mask when in close proximity to any family member.
You can ask how often the agency tests their staff. Or if they do.
You can ask the agency if they are requiring caregivers to be vaccinated.
You could require anyone working in your home to be vaccinated. If that is the case let the agency know.
Vaccination can make it more difficult for the vaccinated person to become infected BUT they can still transmit the virus and infect someone else.