Posted on 09/29/2009 5:55:46 AM PDT by Born Conservative
Health care institutions, concerned that less than half their workers got flu shots in previous years, are moving for the first time to make the shots mandatory in the face of an expected swine flu pandemic.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures for the 2007-08 flu season, the most recent available, show that just 45.4 percent of U.S. health care workers ages 19 to 64 were immunized against seasonal flu that year. Three British surveys released in recent weeks suggest the same pattern with the novel H1N1 virus, commonly known as the "swine flu" virus.
But Dr. Tom Talbot, a professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said "there has been a big wave this year" of mandatory vaccination rules, ranging from small doctors' offices to large medical care and hospital systems.
"A lot of people are leaning [toward mandatory vaccinations], pointing to it as a safety issue, akin to a surgeon refusing to do a scrub before surgery," he said.
"I think H1N1 has prompted it," he said, adding that rules for seasonal flu are in place and likely will be for H1N1 when the vaccine becomes available. He said that voluntary systems need resources to exhort workers into complying, making a mandatory policy cheaper and quicker.
The New York State Health Department, in what is thought to be the first statewide ruling of its kind, now requires all hospital, hospice and home health care workers to get both a seasonal and H1N1 flu shot. Those who defy the requirement without a religious or medical reason put their jobs at risk.
Policies for H1N1 are generally still being formulated, spokesmen at several hospitals, health care systems and professional groups nationwide told The Washington Times.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
So no doctor got a flu shot at this hospital? I find that exceptionally unlikely. However, you must press your friend for the name of the hospital. I would like to verify this independently.
we are definitely going vaccine crazy under Obama and I agree, it’s a payback to Big Pharma for not opposing his health care plan. My kids went back to school and came home with demands that they get a bunch of new shots, many of which did not even exist before 2005. We need to start drawing the line somewhere!
I waiting for “The Peoples Republic of NJ” to follow suit.
My daughter is an EMT in the Newark area, I told her to read up on the field trials, then make an educated choice.
I have chosen not to get the vaccine, I am not in the age group and do not want to take the chance.
I worked in the federal government in DC in the mid-70’s when the first swine flu scare swept the country. We were told that if we didn't get the flu shot (military-style, lined up in the hallway), we couldn't report to work and we wouldn't be paid for days we were absent. With hindsight, we know the flu vaccine that year was not only unnecessary but also dangerous to many people.
It’s been way too long ago. The nurse’s basic argument was that the doctor’s felt that the risk from flu shots exceeded the benefits. But it was to the doctor’s advantage to have the staff get shots.
Well I’m a health care worker but it’s a good thing that as a member of the “Eartotheground” sub-sect of the Presbyterian Church, our religious beliefs forbid immunization or vaccination of any kind!
Here is a link that has more info on this madate. http://www.newsday.com/long-island/mandatory-flu-vaccination-splits-workers-1.1481242?print=true I don’t know if this is how to do this as I do not post very often...not as intelligent as most of you because I don’t have a college degree (sarc)...but certainly learn a lot here.
“My body is not the government’s chemistry set to play with.”
AMEN!!!!! Same here! I refuse to take the swine flu vaccine.
And people on FR thought I was absolutely insane when, a couple weeks back, I posted that I would refuse to take it.
I’m telling you, this vaccine is dangerous, not thoroughly tested and has too many risks.
I live in rural Missouri, in a conservative area, and even our local health department and the Wal-Mart Pharmacy are both teaming up and are begging the government to provide them with the vaccine to give to residents.
Something is really wrong with this picture.
Well, I am a healthcare worker that studies immunology and majored in it as an undergraduate. I and my family will not take the swine flu vaccine. The testing has been rushed and the risk of GB syndrome outweighs the risk since H1N1 has already swept through Texas like a brush fire. It is a non mutating virus and will not return each year like the seasonal flu. I work in a large multi-specialty clinic and the vast majority of doctors are not taking the vaccine. They are squirreling away several courses of Tamiflu at home and passing on being Obama’s petri dish. Because of the governments misguided policy about H1N1 there is now a nationwide shortage of seasonal vaccine due to diversion of production capacity. Good work CDC.
The article I read about this said approximately 40 to 50 percent of healthcare workers get the flu shot. That’s not a vast majority.
“In a typical year, only 40 percent to 50 percent of health care workers take advantage of voluntary flu vaccination programs...”
http://www.newsday.com/long-island/mandatory-flu-vaccination-splits-workers-1.1481242?print=true
Same here in Georgia. Princess riverdawg just got over a bout of the H1N1. Left school early on Friday to go to the pediatrician and started taking Tamiflu. She was lethargic all weekend, and we held her out on Monday per doctor's orders. She returned to school today, having begun to feel much better yesterday. She has had much worse colds (not to mention the seasonal flu) in past years. This is the most over-hyped “epidemic” since the catastrophic swine-flu debacle in the mid-70’s.
That wasn't the issue. Of course they wouldn't. The chances of being incapacitated are/were very small but not zero. So having the staff stay free of a flu would be a "good decision" for the doctors. The risk of them catching the flu would be reduced and the risk from taking a flu shot would be zero. There are some bad side effects from flu shots and the doctors seemed to understand that - at least for the case in question.
I'm not defending the nurse's position. I'm just reporting what she said and I believe that she was sincere. As you can see from the news, people to object to being told they have to take a flu shot.
Published in the UK’s Daily Mail 15 August 2009
A warning that the new swine flu jab is linked to a deadly nerve disease has been sent by the Government to senior neurologists in a confidential letter.
The letter from the Health Protection Agency, the official body that oversees public health, has been leaked to The Mail on Sunday, leading to demands to know why the information has not been given to the public before the vaccination of millions of people, including children, begins.
It tells the neurologists that they must be alert for an increase in a brain disorder called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which could be triggered by the vaccine.
GBS attacks the lining of the nerves, causing paralysis and inability to breathe, and can be fatal.
The letter, sent to about 600 neurologists on July 29, is the first sign that there is concern at the highest levels that the vaccine itself could cause serious complications.
It refers to the use of a similar swine flu vaccine in the United States in 1976 when:
More people died from the vaccination than from swine flu.
500 cases of GBS were detected.
The vaccine may have increased the risk of contracting GBS by eight times.
The vaccine was withdrawn after just ten weeks when the link with GBS became clear.
The US Government was forced to pay out millions of dollars to those affected.
Concerns have already been raised that the new vaccine has not been sufficiently tested and that the effects, especially on children, are unknown.
It is being developed by pharmaceutical companies and will be given to about 13million people during the first wave of immunisation, expected to start in October.
Top priority will be given to everyone aged six months to 65 with an underlying health problem, pregnant women and health professionals.
The British Neurological Surveillance Unit (BNSU), part of the British Association of Neurologists, has been asked to monitor closely any cases of GBS as the vaccine is rolled out.
One senior neurologist said last night: ‘I would not have the swine
flu jab because of the GBS risk.’
There are concerns that there could be a repeat of what became known as the ‘1976 debacle’ in the US, where a swine flu vaccine killed 25 people – more than the virus itself.
A mass vaccination was given the go-ahead by President Gerald Ford because scientists believed that the swine flu strain was similar to the one responsible for the 1918-19 pandemic, which killed half a million Americans and 20million people worldwide.
No, it is not all made in the same way. Get your facts straight. Here’s some info from one of the President’s favorite websites PMSNBC that says you are incorrect....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32672322/ns/health-swine_flu/
Shot made with component not licensed in U.S.
It is still unclear, however, what this would mean for the global swine flu supply. Not every drugmaker could simply copy Novartis’ vaccine recipe. Novartis’ vaccine was made using cell culture, while about 90 percent of the world’s flu vaccines are made using chicken eggs.
Their vaccine also included adjuvants, a chemical component used to stretch a vaccine’s active ingredient and essentially make it more efficient. While adjuvants are commonly used in European flu vaccines, there are no licensed flu vaccines in the U.S. or Canada with the ingredients.
There is also limited data on how safe flu vaccines with adjuvants are in pregnant women and children, two of the groups thought most vulnerable in a pandemic, or global epidemic.
The vaccine approved by China did not use an adjuvant, like most of the vaccines being tested in the U.S.
A handful of other major pharmaceuticals, including Sanofi-Aventis SA, GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Baxter International are also conducting trials of their own swine flu vaccines, but have not yet announced results.
Would you recommend receiving the seasonal flu vaccine?
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