What are your thoughts about mandatory flu shots for hospital workers?

[diggitydot]

Flu season was BAD here. Really bad. Dying kids all over the news kind of bad. Students receiving flu vaccinations passed out in schools kind of bad.

DH's hospital prohibited ALL visitors under 16, set up hand washing/sanitizing stations at every entrance, and passed out masks to EVERYONE who sneezed or coughed whether they were patients or not. Mandatory vaccinations all around and I haven't run into anyone who took issue with it. I'm sure there must be some who objected, but no one I've talked with.

Us?

Me, too - if she'd want to put herself through the fire of explaining, but I don't think I'd want to.

That's just it - if you don't have the discussion with dissenting points of view on this, then you don't get anywhere with changing anyone's mind either way.

I'm still trying to find actual numbers...

[oceanchild]

I don't think DH's hospital has mandated the shots this year, but he and I will probably both get them if they're available. I've never really understood the not putting "stuff" in your body argument, because I figure I'm surrounded by contaminants and germs and whatnot all the time, and I refuse to live in a bubble in order to prevent that. I'm sure my body is full of stuff that in a perfect system wouldn't be there.

At any rate, I find the herd immunity arguments for vaccines to be really compelling. If the choice is for you as an individual, it might be marginally safer for you not to get a particular vaccine. But projected onto the whole community, it's much more dangerous for you not to get the vaccine.

[scrub-jay]

FYI - At DD's 4 month appt earlier this month, our pediatrician told us that he has already seen 60 cases of flu pass through his office, I think he sent 5-6 to the hospital already. That is remarkable for this early in flu season, so he offered to give us flu shots while we were there (DD can't get hers until she is 6 months) and we jumped at the opportunity. This might be a very strong season.

ETA: Can one of the admins move this into Debates? I think it would be more appropriate there.

[Vanquisher]

DH and I are getting them, maybe today. We work in the same office as an occupational health clinic. We are also requiring that our employees get them.

[MrsK]

My family history was shaped by several ancestors who died in the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic. I never understood how someone could die of the flu until I had it my first year practicing law. The one time I didn't get a flu shot and I have never been so sick in my life -- and that's including my pregnancy during which I threw up for 7 months. It's not just a bad cold. The flu hit me so suddenly that I'll never forget it. I was at work and suddenly I couldn't even stand up. By that evening, I had a fever over 104 and it took me months to recover my strength and lung capacity. I'm getting the vaccine and so are DrK and BabyK.

[scarlett09]

I'd say about two months after.

Lots of people are outraged about the flu shot being mandatory. Last year during the swine flu pandemic healthcare workers in New York sued over the flu shot becoming mandatory. Lots of health care workers are wary of the flu shot.

The flu shot never contains all of the strains of flu that are circulating during a given year. It is possible your DH got a strain that was not covered by the shot. And it is not an educated guess about what goes into the vaccination either: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals...on/virusqa.htm

I would love to see additional details/statistics about the amount of health care workers that are wary of the flu shot.

[Meenah]

Our hospital doesn't say it is mandatory, but I honestly don't know of anyone who doesn't get the flu shot. I get the flu shot every year. Last year I didn't get the H1N1 vaccine but I did get the Flu and I thought I was going to die. It took me 6 weeks to feel human. I figure the vaccine is probably safer than half of the crap we ingest in processed foods!

[Chrisada]

DH, myself and our children always get the flu shot. I could not imagine not getting it. I'm pretty sure it is mandatory for DH and he has never heard of anyone having a problem with it.

[ladymoreta]

I guess I can see if someone is against vaccines for religious reasons... But I kind of think that if a doctor believes that getting a flu shot is more dangerous than not, his or her medical school failed.

[diggitydot]

But I kind of think that if a doctor believes that getting a flu shot is more dangerous than not, his or her medical school failed.

I guess I can see if someone is against vaccines for religious reasons... But I kind of think that if a doctor believes that getting a flu shot is more dangerous than not, his or her medical school failed.

Lots of docs believe this, actually. I know a bunch who vocally protested the mandatory flu vaccine. It's not that I believe the flu vaccine will give me the flu. Have you ever read the list of ingredients in vaccines--i.e. the preservatives that are added? That's what I'm most wary of--the effects of injecting these into my body. And with the flu vaccine this is administered once a year, so you're getting a lot more of these preservatives versus the other mandatory vaccines required to work at a hospital, which are given once (like MMR, or tetanus, which is given once every 10 years).

Also, opinions regarding being wary of the flu vaccine are cited frequently in the articles about why flu vaccine rates have been so historically low among hospital employees. These articles were all over the news last year during swine flu season. If hospital employees, including doctors, believed the flu shot was 100% safe and effective, why have vaccine rates historically been so low, until hospitals started making them mandatory under threat of firing? Obviously hospital workers weren't voluntarily rolling up their sleeves for the benefits of patients to get them before there was the ominous threat of firing.

[scrub-jay]

If we're talking about personal experiences here, I've known docs who prefer (and recommend to other staffers) getting 2 flu shots per year because of the decreased protection at the end of the season.

[Vanquisher]

Other than your dh, who you claim is against the flu vax, I have only ever even heard of one other doc who was against vaccines because of the autism link in kids. However, that doc fabricated his evidence and has been widely discredited and caused a lot of panic, hysteria, and probably the deaths and diseases of countless children.

The reason that vaccination rates for the flu are so low among hospital workers isn't because most doctors are unwilling or not wanting to receive them. I don't buy that for one half of a millisecond. The reason that it is so low is that there are a LOT of lay people who work in hospitals who do not understand how vaccinations work and listen to stories and hearsay about contracting the virus from the vaccine.

Outside of people who can truely not get certain vaccinations because of allergies to eggs and shellfish in certain vaccines, I feel that it is morally, ethically, and completely abhorant and irresponsible not to be vaccinated, especially as a health care worker. I even believe that is true to "religious reasons." Your religious reasons are fine and dandy for you when they only affect your health and your well-being, but declining vaccinations puts the health and well-being of the population in jeopardy. I am completely against that.

I don't think my employees are too happy to be getting vaccines either. My x-ray tech complained that he has never been sick and if he got the flu this year, it would be "my fault" for making him get the vaccine. He is going to have to suck it up and get it anyway because I cannot have him passing on the flu to our elderly, young, or otherwise immunocompromised patients.

and ... moving to Debates ...

*everyone stay nice*