As a U.S. citizen I was very curious about the claims made that the US government is now talking about an enforced vaccination for the Swine flu.” as I listen to multiple news programs every day & haven’t heard about this.

In Googling this it surfaced that the New York State Health Department passed a regulation requiring all hospital, home health & hospice workers get seasonal & swine flu vaccinations. This is being hotly protested. It seems the health care workers can decline to take the flu shot if they wear face masks. I looked for a news report as many sites & blogs about this are NOT a source of accurate information.

The following article states, “Only two hospital groups in the country, Virginia Mason in Seattle and BJC HealthCare in St. Louis, now make all their employees get flu shots or face dismissal, ...”

Excerpts from New York Times, Sept. 20, 2009:

“That’s why the emergency regulation adopted this summer by the State Health Department making all hospital, home health and hospice workers get seasonal and swine flu vaccinations was a startling and radical step.

No other state or city health department has such a rule. Local unions reacted angrily, saying they had not been consulted.

Joel Shufro, executive director of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, a coalition of 200 union locals, said the change was presented to them “as a done deal” on Aug. 17. His coalition is still debating suing to stop it, he said.

The unions do not oppose vaccination “but we oppose a mandatory program,” he said. “This is: ‘You don’t get the shot, you’re fired.’ ””

“Every state already requires health workers to be immunized against measles, mumps and polio, and the unions do not object. Also, federal law requires their employers to offer free hepatitis shots against needle-stick injuries, and California requires them to offer free flu shots too. While workers may decline, they must sign a form saying they accept the risk.

Immunologists generally agree that real protection against any disease requires vaccination rates over 90 percent. But because rumors always circulate and many people fear needles, voluntary acceptance never gets that high.

Only two hospital groups in the country, Virginia Mason in Seattle and BJC HealthCare in St. Louis, now make all their employees get flu shots or face dismissal, said Dr. Thomas R. Talbot, an epidemiologist at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine who studies the issue. Both groups reached vaccination rates of more than 98 percent and he knew of five more planning to follow suit, he said.”

“The unions also object because no flu shot protects perfectly. As the virus mutates, new vaccines must be made each year, and in some years, like 2005, the flu mutates so quickly “that it’s really a crapshoot in terms of matching the strain,” said Jan S. Rodolfo, a nurse and a flu expert at the California Nurses Association, which represents 86,000 nurses in several states.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/21/nyregion/21vaccine.html?_r=1&scp=9&sq=forced%20health%20care%20h1n1%20vaccinations&st=cse

Even though the article noted that hospitals mandate that their workers be vaccinated against measles, mumps, & polio I am concerned about requiring health care workers to be required to take multiple vaccines, particularly as the flu is a virus that mutates quickly so the vaccine may not be effective. If a truly deadly virus such as ebola was in an epidemic, this would be a different situation, but this flu virus hasn’t proved to be nearly lethal enough to justify this mandate w/ health care workers.

While this is certainly a problematic issue w/ forcing health care workers to use this vaccine or wear face masks, or in the case of 2 hospital systems in Seattle & St. Louis that were firing employees for not having the shot (Not giving them the option to wear face masks.), it is ENTIRELY DIFFERENT than the claim that the U.S. government is considering mandating that the entire U.S. population 307 million people be force vaccinated. I can assure you that any attempt to force the general U.S. population would be met w/ an incredible uproar.

It is exactly this type of overstatement that wildly inflates 2 hospital groups’ & one state’s mandate to require their workers to take the flu shot or use masks as discussed above to the U.S. government forcing the entire 307 million population to take flu shots. This type of overstatement is highly irresponsible & causing considerable unnecessary fear.

Namaste