As Flu Season Approaches, Some Health-Care Workers Say ‘No’ to the Flu Shot

As summer comes to a close and the influenza virus starts calling open season on our immune systems, one would hope that health-care workers have gotten their CDC-prescribed yearly flu shot by now — especially given their high rates of job-related exposure to infectious disease and their easy access to the vaccine. Guess again. According to a 2009 RAND Corporation survey of health-care workers around the country, nearly 40% of health-care providers had not been inoculated by this time last year. About 12% of survey participants said they had intended to get the flu shot, but had yet to do so by the beginning of last year’s infamous H1N1 flu season. Now, two public health organizations have teamed up to propose mandatory vaccinations for health workers for the coming year.

Hospital workers avoiding the flu vaccine piques suspicion — like a chef who won’t eat in his own restaurant. So why were so many survey respondents negligent in getting immunized? The reasons were varied. Twenty-two percent of those surveyed appeared to think they were invincible, answering simply, “I don’t need it.” Alarmingly, 21% said they didn’t “believe in” flu vaccines. Others thought the shot would make them sick, or didn’t like needles. Some reported that “others need it more than I do.”

Such selflessness aside, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and the Infectious Disease Society of America are calling this behavior unethical and unprofessional. They have collaborated on a proposal to make flu shots mandatory for those working in the health-care field.

If mandatory vaccination seems like an invasion of privacy, the new proposal points out that all health-care workers are already required to have tuberculosis screenings and several standard immunizations. So far, at least one governing body, the State of New York Department of Health, has made flu vaccination a requirement for employment. Perhaps more health departments and hospitals will follow suit.

jenstate

While I appreciate that the flu virus is serious for some, did you know that Vitamin D3 is more effective at fighting flu than the vaccine and many in the US are deficient? Here is an article about preparing for flu season naturally. Good info whether you are wary of the flu vaccine or not. My family is already taking extra D3 according to the new recommendations.
http://borderlinediabetes.wordpress.com borderlinediabetes

This is a shame that people are FORCED to get this. I am a senior citizen and the flu shot is a scam! Last year the vaccine maker made 25 BILLION dollars!!! The swine flu vaccine made 61 billion$$$$!! and then it was revealed last week that the swine flu was not as bad as feared.

The drug companies run all health care. A filmmaker has been reversing diabetes WITHOUT medication and the drug companies do not promote it

just google SPIRIT HAPPY DIET
autismanne

More propaganda from big pharma. Has anyone ever looked at how much flu the flu vaccines actually causes? Especially the flu mist vaccine? I think that should be studied before mandating this. Let’s also see some safety studies on the flu shot in combination with other vaccines; and safety studies on pregnant women. I could go on – let’s just say that mandating this is making us all guinea pigs.
ushouldknowthis

Recently the W.H.O. quietly announced that the H1N1 “pandemic” was officially over as if it ever really was a pandemic. Also we are to believe that worldwide a reported 18,000 people died as a result of this “pandemic”. That would equate to a miniscule percentage of 0.000003 of the worldwide population of 6 billion. Yet every year millions of children die of dysentery and other water and sanitation related diseases and government organizations worldwide would rather spend billions of dollars on a flu vaccine? Are they trying to save lives or are the governmental organizations infiltrated with decision makers that have ties with vaccine manufacturers?
Healthcare workers probably have a greater chance of being struck by lightning or dying from drowning or fire than dying of the flu. Yet we should allow ourselves to be injected with a vaccine that has not been proven to be neither safe nor effective. Why? Because if healthcare workers are not lining up to be vaccinated how are they going to convince the rest of the herd. Last year the vaccination rate for healthcare workers was far less than 50% despite heavy handed tactics, fear and intimdation. The State of New York attempted to make vaccination mandatory for all healthcare workers but lost the battle in the Courts. Due to the H1N1 debacle the WHO was under investigation in Europe for possible corruption and conflict of interest and the CDC may be just as suspect.
One page of the CDC website states “The CDC recommends a yearly flu vaccine for everyone as the first and most important step in protecting against this serious disease.” Yet on another page it states “Influenza viruses cause disease among persons in all age groups. Rates of infection are highest among children, but the risks for complications, hospitalizations, and deaths from influenza are higher among persons aged 65 years and older, young children, and persons of any age who have medical conditions that place them at increased risk for complications from influenza. Estimated rates of influenza-associated hospitalizations and deaths varied substantially by age group in studies conducted during different influenza epidemics. During 1990–1999, estimated average rates of influenza-associated pulmonary and circulatory deaths per 100,000 persons were 0.4–0.6 among persons aged 0–49 years, 7.5 among persons aged 50–64 years, and 98.3 among persons aged 65 years and older.”
How should this be interpreted? That children get the flu and can be expected to recover, as should almost any other healthy person. But the old and sick may have a 1 in a thousand chance of dying from influenza related complications. The irony is that it is the old and sick that are primarily targeted to get the flu shot. Are they dying from the flu shot or from the flu. We will never know because a study has not been performed that compares the death rates of the vaccinated verses the unvaccinated.
Until the vaccine makers subject their vaccines to double blind placebo controlled trials as all other drugs are put through and the vaccines are then proven to be 100% safe and effective then we as informed individuals should decide for ourselves whether the risks of being vaccinated outweigh the benefits. And because no vaccine will ever prove to be 100% safe and effective, no one should ever be mandated to receive one. That is our right.