Forced to get flu shot or wear a mask

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Recently I heard our hospital will be forcing everyone to get a flu shot or they will have to wear a mask for their entire shift. I have had a reaction to it and usually just boost my immune system during flu season and this works well. I was told that even if we have had a reaction in the past and still don't get it, we wear a mask. This does not sit well with many of us at the hospital. Was wondering if others have experienced this and what they did.

Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.
Better than the option of get the shot or voluntarily terminate your position.

This is what we have. We either get the flu shot or lose our job. You can only opt out if you have a documented reasone from a physician as to not receive the vaccine, are truly allergic to the vaccine or eggs (and they draw a rast test for allergies), and if you have clergy sign that you receiving the flu shot is in contradiciton with your religious beliefs. If you have those issues you can wear a mask. Other than that it is flu shot or be fired.

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IMO (without it having happened to me or anyone I know very well) - No, because you wouldn't be able to prove you got it from the flu shot, so they wouldn't cover you. I knew a young woman who had a severe case of GBS several months later. I don't think she even connected it with the flu shot. From what I understand, it can happen months later, after the injection.

It most likely wasn't connected to the flu shot. GBS has a far stronger association with flu like illnesses than it does with the shot. In the several months after her vaccination, she could have had a viral illness that actually precipitated the GBS.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.
It's not mandatory at my hospital. I don't take it and never will.

Progress will one day make its way to your hospital. Never say never.

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Specializes in Registered Nurse.
It most likely wasn't connected to the flu shot. GBS has a far stronger association with flu like illnesses than it does with the shot. In the several months after her vaccination, she could have had a viral illness that actually precipitated the GBS.

True. It could have been from a viral illness. I was just relaying that it happened....and the co-worker made no connection, that I know of, to the flu shot. Whatever she thought the reason for the GBS, she wouldn't be able to prove it was or was not the flu shot, no matter what she believed. I was answering another comment by another poster. She wouldn't get workman's comp, IMO.

We also had cases of meningitis on my unit. They were covered under insurance but not workman's comp. They couldn't prove where they got it though they had patient's with it.

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curious- if you got GBS , from the flu shot, would you be covered under workman's comp? Or not, because you could have just been forced to wear a mask for the next 9 or so months...

That's a tough one.No win situation.

Again, since people who haven't had the flu vaccine develop GBS at about the same rate as people who have gotten the flu vaccine, it's hard to make the case that any particular individual "got GBS from the flu shot." People were developing GBS long before there was a flu shot and, guess what, they still do, with or without the shot. There was an actual, tragic relationship between the flu shot and GBS in 1976, which ruined a lot of people's lives. There is no year before or since then in which vaccinated people developed GBS at a significantly higher rate than the general public. And the risk of developing GBS as a sequela of having had the flu is significantly higher than the risk for the general unvaccinated public or the vaccinated public. And, yet, the paranoia lives on.

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Specializes in Thoracic Cardiovasc ICU Med-Surg.

OMG there is a RISK of GB! OH NOES! People life is full of risk. Have you read the side effects of Tylenol lately? Guess what there is a risk for? Liver failure!! Or Ibuprofen? Kidney failure! Aspirin? GI bleeding! Take prednisone for your COPD? Bruising, hyperglycemia, hypertension PSYCHOSIS. Pregnant? There is chance you might die from a blood clot or heck and amniotic embolus.

Just driving to work has risk. Vaccines help PREVENT disease. This is a proven FACT.

I know some of you are all "THE corporate overlords want to steal my will and freedom!!!!!" Um, how about, step away from the paranoia for a hot second and actually pretend that Your Hospital Overlords would actually like you to SHOW UP for work instead of being out for a week or two with the Flu.

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.
My local grocery store has a walk-in clinic attached. They are offering 10% off of grocery shopping trip if I get a flu shot at the clinic. Going down to stock up tomorrow! Plus a former coworker is the ARNP there, so I get to catch up with her at the same time!

For 10% off my bill I'd get a 2nd flu shot!! :laugh:

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.
For 10% off my bill I'd get a 2nd flu shot!! :laugh:

The 10% off only applies to GMO foods.

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The 10% off only applies to GMO foods.

10% isn't much of a discount. But if the foods are GMO, count me in! :up:

It is interesting that every year we have the same old, same old arguments against vaccines. I was hopeful that with more scientific education and a good statistics class, some nurses and doctors would become more pro-vaccine. I realize that the ones who are crowing about GBS and other "vaccine injuries" are a tiny minority of medically trained folks but it still surprises me that science-based medical people buy into the myths.

I did read that Doctor Sears (that wacko anti-vaxx doc) is in some trouble lately.

Good.

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The entire world bought into the myth that the earth was flat for thousands of years and any dissenters could be jailed or lose their lives over voicing their opinions. There's currently a push by some to make dissenting from global warming a criminal offense even though it hasn't been proven. Many are being forced, yes forced, to take vaccines that they don't want because the "experts" deem it so. Seems we haven't advanced as far as some think.

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.
The entire world bought into the myth that the earth was flat for thousands of years and any dissenters could be jailed or lose their lives over voicing their opinions. There's currently a push by some to make dissenting from global warming a criminal offense even though it hasn't been proven. Many are being forced, yes forced, to take vaccines that they don't want because the "experts" deem it so. Seems we haven't advanced as far as some think.

I was going to say its a good thing people aren't losing their lives over refusing vaccines but, sadly they are, though out of their own ignorance not by the will of others.

Actually, we have advanced pretty far since the days of the flat earth theory (though there are still supporters of it) when the life expectancy was 25-35 years.

You can put as many quotes around experts as you want but it doesn't change the incredible amoutn of science supporting the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

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Specializes in Oncology.
The entire world bought into the myth that the earth was flat for thousands of years and any dissenters could be jailed or lose their lives over voicing their opinions. There's currently a push by some to make dissenting from global warming a criminal offense even though it hasn't been proven. Many are being forced, yes forced, to take vaccines that they don't want because the "experts" deem it so. Seems we haven't advanced as far as some think.

Wait, now we're debating global warming? And there's a push to make dissenting global warming illegal? What fresh paranoia is this?!?! Does Donald Trump know?

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