Judge Blocks Mandatory Flu Shots, Temporarily

[The Straight Story]

Judge Blocks Mandatory Flu Shots, Temporarily

The fight against mandatory flu vaccines has just gotten a shot in the arm.

An Albany judge has just issued a temporary restraining order preventing the state Department of Health from mandating flu vaccinations for health care workers in New York, according to lawyers in the case.

Terry Kindlon, the lawyer representing nurses who filed a lawsuit this week, said Judge Thomas McNamara issued the order at a hearing Friday morning.

The nurses argue the policy violates their civil rights.

State Health Commissioner Richard Daines had imposed a regulation that required certain health care workers to be vaccinated by Nov. 30 or face being fired.

Kindlon says New York is the only state in the country to require "involuntary vaccinations" for health care workers.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/Judge-Blocks-Mandatory-Flu-Shots-64509222.html

[HuckleB]

1. I'm a health care worker, and I think it's irresponsible for colleagues not to be vaccinated.

However, I do not find New York's "involuntary vaccination" policy to be the way to go, either. This seems like a positive decision.

[TwilightGardener]

2. And right next to that headline on the website is a story about a nurse

who was stricken with Guillain Barre after her flu shot. Interesting.

[northernlights]

3. you are just about as likely to get Guillain Barre after a bout of the flu

or illness with flu-like symptoms, as from the vax. Most likely to get it if you get the vax within a few weeks of an illness with flu-like symptoms.

That said, mandatory is not the way to go.

[TwilightGardener]

4. Perhaps. There are other causes, obviously. But it's a serious syndrome, nonetheless.

I took care of an elderly woman in ICU, on a vent from GB, and my son was friends with a boy who had missed a good deal of school recovering from it. More people will die from flu complications than from flu shot associated GB or other reactions, but I still don't believe in mandatory flu vac's.

[northernlights]

5. Not perhaps. Epidemiological fact. but I agree with you about mandatory being just plain wrong

There are better ways to prevent the spread of the flu. I wonder if another concern is about staffing issues during an outbreak? But mandatory is not acceptable to me, period.


http://magicalthyme.blogspot.com/2009/09/swine-flu-vaccine-and-gullaine-barre.html

[TwilightGardener]

6. I suspect staffing levels during flu season is the PRIMARY reason

for making the flu shot mandatory in NY, and said as much in the big flamey thread on this yesterday. Protection of patients is probably a secondary benefit.