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.

She's extremely vocal about it and she's a friend, so I keep my mouth shut. I cringe every time she praises Wakefield like he's a god.

I understand being tactful around friends, but I hope you at least point out that The Lancet eventually retracted and completely disavowed the Wakefield article and Wakefield lost his medical license for deliberately falsifying the research in the now-infamous article ...

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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.

Gunpoint? Tackle and tie, then inject?

Explain forced.

Yes, GM, do tell. "Forced" how, exactly? I know a number of healthcare employers that have made it a mandatory condition of employment, but people who feel that strongly about the issue are able to simply not work for those employers. I haven't yet heard of anyone being wrestled down to the ground, or held at gunpoint, and injected against their will ... Who is being "forced," and how?

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I understand being tactful around friends, but I hope you at least point out that The Lancet eventually retracted and completely disavowed the Wakefield article and Wakefield lost his medical license for deliberately falsifying the research in the now-infamous article ...

I hate to be like that, but this stuff could potentially destroy a friendship I have with someone. It really could.

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I've dropped friends that were anti-vax. Normally there are other issues that lead me down to the "I cannot have another conversation like that" point, granted.

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1. I have never seen anyone with a severe allergic response to the flu shot. I would like to hear details from someone who had this experience.

2. I have seen many people who experienced guillian barre from having a cold or flu. They were told by neurologist to wait a year before getting another flu shot and no live vaccines.

3. Just a thought, being comfortable on the job is always guaranteed. If you really don't want to get the flu shot, you can still stay in nursing, maybe as a traveller, avoiding flu season.

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.

You know what my employer does? Forces me to show up to work at my scheduled times. To get there I have to drive in a car where I am forced by the police department to wear a seat-belt. Did you know that my cousin was in a car accident and suffered a HUGE contusion from his seat belt. They say these things are supposed to be safe! I have never even been in a car accident!

In all seriousness, I do wish I had had the time to conduct formal research into vaccine avoidance, as it's an incredibly interesting topic from it's associations with conformation bias/pseudoscience and conspiracy theory to the role of internet and media to the current political dissociation from science.

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I hate to be like that, but this stuff could potentially destroy a friendship I have with someone. It really could.

happened to me. I had a friendship with someone who years into our friendship decided on some pretty farout ideas on what seemed like an endless line of issues from vaccinations to homeschooling to autism to chemicals in food, GMO, right on through to reproductive rights. I loved her dearly, but at one point just couldn't take it anymore. gentle suggestions that we not discuss those topics didn't work as she was always on one crusade or another and I just couldn't avoid it if I wanted to talk to her at all! so a very long friendship disappeared. It makes me sad, but I just couldn't listen anymore to how vaccinations were causing everything from learning disabilities to autism to cancer, GMOs did the same thing, public schools were somehow out to get children and homeschooling was the only correct answer and on and on.

I miss her but I don't miss those conversations more!

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

In all seriousness, I do wish I had had the time to conduct formal research into vaccine avoidance, as it's an incredibly interesting topic from it's associations with conformation bias/pseudoscience and conspiracy theory to the role of internet and media to the current political dissociation from science.

I read a n interesting academic article a few months ago (can't remember where) talking about the difference between beliefs based on things like faith, conviction, or desire tend to be held tighter than beliefs based on facts and scientific knowledge. That "tightness" is why it is so hard to shake a person's personal beliefs with facts. They are going to believe what they believe in spite of the facts, not because of them. The article wasn't focused on the anti-vaccine people, but that was used as an example -- as was religious faith and racial prejudice.

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I understand being tactful around friends, but I hope you at least point out that The Lancet eventually retracted and completely disavowed the Wakefield article and Wakefield lost his medical license for deliberately falsifying the research in the now-infamous article ...

Oh she's aware. But she's convinced that there's a huge conspiracy to discredit him and swears up and down that he's right. She won't listen to reason. She's one of those crunchy moms who believe in a more holistic approach. Which doesn't bother me, but she's also a helicopter mom and seriously considered home-schooling her son for a majority of reasons relating to his ASD diagnosis and reasons that have nothing to do with it. She also claims her youngest had a reaction to the vitamin K shot that he got at birth and that her fiancé had a reaction to a vaccine. She wasn't always like this. She was actually really cool and laid back when we first started being friends. She had dreams to joining the military and she was an EMT. Then she got married to her first husband and he was abusive. I stay friends with her, because she still has a cool, spunky, and quirky personality. I just don't talk to her about vaccines. Thankfully she lives far enough away that I can ignore it most of the time.

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Specializes in M/S, Pulmonary, Travel, Homecare, Psych..
Oh she's aware. But she's convinced that there's a huge conspiracy to discredit him and swears up and down that he's right. She won't listen to reason. She's one of those crunchy moms who believe in a more holistic approach. Which doesn't bother me, but she's also a helicopter mom and seriously considered home-schooling her son for a majority of reasons relating to his ASD diagnosis and reasons that have nothing to do with it. She also claims her youngest had a reaction to the vitamin K shot that he got at birth and that her fiancé had a reaction to a vaccine. She wasn't always like this. She was actually really cool and laid back when we first started being friends. She had dreams to joining the military and she was an EMT. Then she got married to her first husband and he was abusive. I stay friends with her, because she still has a cool, spunky, and quirky personality. I just don't talk to her about vaccines. Thankfully she lives far enough away that I can ignore it most of the time.

I have a friend I'm in a similar situation with. Total facebook political ranter, and his rants (of course) are always anti-establishment and against the grain.

Now, I can relate to thinking critical about the "popular opinion" and not always agreeing with it but he takes it to an extreme that is a bit annoying.

Hates our military, is convinced "the establishment" is trying to brainwash our kids and make them all join it (the military) and all our top politicians practice secret society satanism. Ugh

I made great use of that button on facebook that lets you stay friends but not see their posts :roflmao:

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Specializes in Leadership, Psych, HomeCare, Amb. Care.
You're like...3rd.

CL and that horse AV person are 1 and 2.

You are always #1 in my book ;)

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You are always #1 in my book ;)

Is it true in Chicago they forbid the use of ketchup on hotdogs punishable by the death penalty?

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