Mandated Flu vaccine?

Nurses COVID

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Hi- Just received a blanket email yesterday that my hospital in VA is requiring ALL STAFF involved in patient care to get the flu vaccine this year. (incl nurses, physicians, clinical aides etc) I always get the vaccine voluntarily but feels wrong that this can be mandated. I still intend to get it. Is this legal? I remember something similar involving a group of NY Nurses some time back.:uhoh3:

Specializes in Oncology.

So do ya'll refuse PPD's also?

:sofahider

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Specializes in Oncology.
I haven't gotten the flu shot...ever. I can't see the logic in getting a vaccine for a virus that mutates. I understand that influenza is an RNA virus and has a lower chance of mutation. However, influenza continues to evolve because of its ability to 'hybridize', much like the Bird Flu, or H1N1. At that point, the antibodies that we receive from the vaccination don't protect us from the mutated protein because the RNA molecules have been restructured.

I further understand that the hybrid mutation that I am describing is rare. I totally understand getting Hep B vaccinations, Typhoid, Dengue Fever, etc. (I travel to poor, tropical and densely populated areas for charity work.) But the influenza virus can also mutate either one or both of the H and N antigens-which is NOT a rare occurrence.

Can anyone help me change my mind about this? I feel that I am one of the last holdouts in getting the flu shot. I just can't understand the sense in getting a vaccination for a virus that mutates. Oh, and could you please go easy and not flame me too much? I am already toasted on one side...

The statistics really kind of speak for themselves. Even if not "optimally matched" you're still way less likely to catch it than without the vaccine

Overall, in years when the vaccine and circulating viruses are well-matched, influenza vaccines can be expected to reduce laboratory-confirmed influenza by approximately 70% to 90% in healthy adults

In years when the vaccine strains are not well matched to circulating strains, vaccine effectiveness can be variably reduced. For example, in a study among persons 50-64 years during the 2003-04 season, when the vaccine strains were not optimally matched, inactivated influenza vaccine effectiveness against laboratory-confirmed influenza was 60% among persons without high-risk conditions, and 48% among those with high risk conditions, but it was 90% against laboratory-confirmed influenza hospitalization (Herrera, et al Vaccine 2006). A study in children during the same year found vaccine effectiveness of about 50% against medically diagnosed influenza and pneumonia without laboratory confirmation (Ritzwoller, Pediatrics 2005). However, in some years when vaccine and circulating strains were not well-matched, no vaccine effectiveness can be demonstrated in some studies, even in healthy adults (Bridges, JAMA 2000). It is not possible in advance of the influenza season to predict how well the vaccine and circulating strains will be matched, and how that match may affect the degree of vaccine effectiveness.

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/vaccination/effectivenessqa.htm

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So do ya'll refuse PPD's also?

:sofahider

Not allergic to the PPD. And if I was, my workplace will settle for me telling them that I am allergic and go to x-rays instead. Not bully me into having a reaction on a yearly basis.

I wore the mask last flu season. It really wasn't that bad. In fact, I had the fewest sniffles of anyone on my unit. (The vaccinated may not have been spreading around flu, but I didn't spread around flu or RSV or adeno or...)

RSV will kill an infant just as quick as flu. But we don't mandate RSV vaccinations for everyone because it's too expensive. Wearing the mask and handwashing protects the patients from more than just flu.

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What complications? Please cite a reliable example.

I don't need to. Anyone who administers vaccines know that there are risks and complications with every single one that we give.

And the CDC website for "safety?"

Isn't this the same CDC that told us 25 years ago that blood was safe and AIDS wasn't a bloodborne disease?

Give me a break.

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Specializes in Too many to list.

I wore the mask last flu season. It really wasn't that bad. In fact, I had the fewest sniffles of anyone on my unit. (The vaccinated may not have been spreading around flu, but I didn't spread around flu or RSV or adeno or...)

I like the idea of wearing a mask to protect myself. I used to do this as an agency nurse working doing temp assignments in several nursing homes at night. I really did have fewer URI's when I put that mask on before going into rooms where I knew the patients were not covering their coughs. Of course, I was there often enough to know which patients were consistently doing this, and could take action to safeguard myself. I never caught so much as a cold that winter.

While masks are a good thing, I still would go with flu vax if not allergic to it. I did not always think this way but knowing what I know now about how flu goes about killing its victims (cytokine storm) has made me change my mind over the past 5 years of studying it. Most of us have just been lucky enough to recover from influenza but not everyone will. No one can predict what influenza viruses can do, and I would not want to be responsible for infecting a vulnerable patient. You won't always know that you are infected as you can be carrying a flu virus but have no symptoms yourself, and yes, testing has shown that this does happen.

So sure, wear a mask if you don't want to be vaccinated. It's inconvenient, but protects you and your patients from all kinds of respiratory infections, and of course, wash your hands frequently.

https://allnurses.com/pandemic-flu-forum/study-calming-cytokine-617555.html

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
We have to go to an allergist (on our own dime, "dime" meaning specialist copay) to get half the vaccination, and if it doesn't kill us then we get the other half, and if that doesn't kill us, we get to do it all over again next year. And the year after that and the year after that. All the while forgetting all we've been taught about repeated exposure to allergens. And all we've been taught about anoxic brain injury (because isn't a doctor's office exactly where you want to lose your airway?

I am all for mandatory flu vaccines, but this is silly and ridiculous that they make you do this. On the plus side, I get my vaccine at work..in the ED...although anaphalaxis is something I never want to experience, even at work....

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.

delete

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
Working in an OBGYN clinic, I cannot see why an employee would opt out for pregnancy and I do not see any of the docs writing notes for this unless they have a true allergy.

Well, remeber this is a nursing home (LTC facility), so the ID nurse isn't really an expert in this area... ;)

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

As a sufferer of auto-immune disease, and have witnessed Guillian-Barre in recipients of vaccines. I wonder what all these vaccines have done to our immune systems and will we immunize ourselves into glasshouses......

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How many of you that are pro-vaccine are also pro-abortion?

And if you ARE pro-abortion, isn't the movement about a woman's right to choose, and shouldn't every single person have the right to choose what goes in and out of their bodies?

Vaccines of any kind, should never be mandated for any person for any reason.

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

Can anyone help me change my mind about this? I feel that I am one of the last holdouts in getting the flu shot. I just can't understand the sense in getting a vaccination for a virus that mutates. Oh, and could you please go easy and not flame me too much? I am already toasted on one side...

It's a matter of numbers. Yes, it can mutate. Yes, there are a lot of people who get the flu shot and still get the flu. But ... it is still valuable to society (and to most individuals) to prevent MOST cases of the most common strain of the virus. As the level of the "herd immunity" goes up, the number of actual cases of influenza goes down, and lives are saved.

It's not 100% of the cases that are prevented. It is not every life that is saved. But it is enough to be significant. That's why it is worth doing.

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Specializes in School Nursing.
How many of you that are pro-vaccine are also pro-abortion?

And if you ARE pro-abortion, isn't the movement about a woman's right to choose, and shouldn't every single person have the right to choose what goes in and out of their bodies?

Vaccines of any kind, should never be mandated for any person for any reason.

Apples to oranges.

And everyone DOES have the right to choose what goes in and out of their bodies. There is no one holding anyone down and injecting them with anything. It is withing an employer's right to have conditions of employment. Every hospital already has mandatory vaccines (Hep B, etc) and other health related conditions of employment (PPD or chest x-ray). It blows my mind that everyone accepts those without problem but when this topic comes up they start hollering about their "rights". No one has a RIGHT to be employed by a hospital. Period.

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