STONY BROOK, N.Y. (CBS) ―They’re upset over an ultimatum from the health department. Workers are being told to either get the swine flu vaccine or lose their jobs.
New York is the first state in the country to mandate flu vaccinations for its health care workers. The first doses of swine flu vaccine will be available beginning next week. Much of it is reserved for state health care workers, but there is growing opposition to required innoculations.
Health care workers in Hauppauge screamed “No forced shots!” as they rallied Tuesday against the state regulation requiring them to roll up their sleeves. “I don’t even tend to the sick. I am in the nutrition field. They are telling me I must get the shot because I work in a health clinic setting,” said Paula Small, a Women, Infants and Children health care worker. Small said she will refuse, worried the vaccine is untested and unproven, leaving her vulnerable. In 1976, there were some deaths associated with a swine flu vaccination.
Registered nurse Frank Mannino, 50, was also angry. He said the state regulation violates his personal freedom and civil rights. “And now I will lose my job if I don’t take the regular flu shot or the swine flu shot.” When asked if he’s willing to lose his job, Mannino said, “Absolutely. I will not take it, will not be forced. This is still America.”
The protest also shook Albany Tuesday. Hundreds of demonstrators demanded freedom of choice. After all, as health care professionals they argue they’re already constantly washing their hands and aren’t likely to transmit or contract the flu.
This doesn’t exactly instill confidence in the general public does it?
Employers by law are required to take reasonable steps to keep their employees safe. So here, your BUSINESS is to protect people from flu but you let your employees be vaccinated? Not without express waivers in the law. “Then” you’d need more waivers from patients seen in the clinic who would claim they got flu from the flu vaccine givers who were not vaccinated.
See how stupid it gets when stupid people see their “liberty” taken at ever step?
Stupid LIEBERTARIANS!!!!! We really should let them all die.
Mandatory flu shots may be necessary but are they Constitutional? Does your health trump my rights?
Mandatory flu shots may be necessary but are they Constitutional? /// Yes.
Does your health trump my rights? /// Yes.
The resolution rationally comes from science triumphing over stupidity.
All constitutional, political and privacy issues aside, I can’t for the life of me understand why anyone with medical training would not voluntarily get the flu shot.
Furthermore, I can’t understand why anyone would allow themselves to be treated at a medical facility where flu shots were not mandatory.
I wonder how many of those objecting would like a nice case of smallpox? Whooping Cough? Polio???
Maybe they should give the President and Congress the first batch of flu shots. If there is nothing wrong with the vaccines then no harm, no foul. If things go horribly wrong, then still, no harm, no foul.
Only when our brave leaders show the American people that the flu shots are fine will ordinary Americans feel secure that flu shots are safe.
Sound like a good compromise Bobbo? Barak Obama and the Congress should lead by example.
Some of the same workers are objecting to the insufferable slavery of having to wash their hands. It chaps their skin.
Hey, I lived in Hauppauge until I got married. Never thought I hear about it on Dvorak. Long Island is a great place to live, Robert Moses park (beach) is beautiful.
Don’t need no stinkin vaccine.
We need a vaccine for stupidity.
#4 Unlike the flu vaccines, the vaccines for smallpox, whooping cough, and polio are actually affective at preventing the diseases they are designed to prevent. I’m pretty sure I’ve had none of the three diseases you mentioned.
By the time that the flu vaccine is ready for people to take, the disease has already mutated to a new form that the vaccine will not prevent.
#5–Benji==I agree completely.
#9–Benji==I disagree completely.
Now, you can’t say you are always wrong.
#3 – bobbo,
The resolution rationally comes from science triumphing over stupidity.
Exactly.
(How many words did I take to say that?)
#9 – Benjamin,
I’ve been getting flu shots every year for the last 18 years or so (since the first time I got flu after being diagnosed with diabetes, a bad combination). I have not had flu once in those years.
I’m going to get both the normal flu shot at the usual time and the H1N1 as soon as it is available for those with a priority reason to get it. (Diabetes counts.) So, I’ll be your guinea pig. As long as you see my posts coming, you’ll know it’s working.
Hi Scott===health care workers who don’t understand/believe/accept the science of vaccinology.
Why thats as stupid as electing politicians who don’t think government can work.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Many people who have died of swine flu infections in the United States have also had bacterial infections, health officials reported on Wednesday.
A study of 77 patients who died of the new pandemic H1N1 virus showed 29 percent of them had so-called bacterial co-infections, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
So now we each need a shot to prevent miscellaneous bacteria also?
What will be next, a little shot of something to smooth the way to your death?
I know several health care practitioners, including an Army Lt. Col. Nurse Practitioner, who are not sure the H1N1 vaccine is a good idea, for the reasons gone over here before (rushed into productions with potentially harmful adjuvants, etc.)
Whoops, shame on me for not reading to the end. The vaccine is a nasal mist, not a shot. Thus the above objections don’t apply.
I’m pretty sure most of you guys don’t know a thing you’re talking about. Many diseases would be non-existent except we continue to inject small amounts into people each year to ward off the very disease we’re trying to protect ourselves against. Makes a lot of sense, huh? Nah. We don’t need sense anymore. Not when we have our precious “science”.
I have a fragile immune system and respiratory health and when I am hospitalized for an issue, the last thing I need is a health care worker who is incubating some virus (but not yet showing symptoms) to come and infect me while I am managing something else.
Being a health care worker, you are expected to take all necessary precautions to prevent transmitting disease to patients.
By refusing to be immunized, you not only jeopardize your own well-being, but that of the people who claim you wish to help.
Legality issues taken into account, you don’t HAVE to be a health care worker. Don’t like the rules, regulations and stipulations of the job? Get another career.
#18–Viggo==Bravo. You got injected with that anti-stupid vaccine a few years ago didn’t you, and it worked just as you say.
Nothing beats real life experience===nay, wisdom.
I’m being serious here. Why don’t the users that agree with this on this site volunteer? I mean you AGREE with this so now it’s your chance to prove what you’re saying. Sign up and do us all a favor.
#21–Theone==I don’t get it. How does ME getting my yearly vaccine prove that those who don’t are idiots?
I’d say its the other way around. If its not a job requirement, then why don’t you prove what you are saying and don’t get any vaccines/anti-virals, medicine in general, snake bite antidote, ie==the whole panoply of modern day science.
Viggo,
I hope you’re not in the medical profession.
Viggo said, on September 30th, 2009 at 9:47 am
“Many diseases would be non-existent except we continue to inject small amounts into people each year to ward off the very disease we’re trying to protect ourselves against.”
Isn’t that what a vaccine is, Viggo? It works for things like polio, smallpox, and whooping cough, though not so much for flu.
#21 – Theone,
Please see my comment number 13 in response to Benjamin.
So scientist bobbo, please explain the difference between these two things scenerios:
1.) You get injected with a small amount of the virus (a vaccine) and your body builds up immunities against the virus.
2.) Someone coughs on you a small amount of the virus and your body builds up immunities against the virus.
For everyone’s information, what do they do to make sure the vaccine doesn’t give you the disease?
I’ll be the first to admit I’m paranoid. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have good reason to be. I’m just gonna let folks I don’t know shoot me up with some unknown crap because they tell me its for my own good? Are you insane? People have a long history of negligence and bad intent and I WILL not allow them to randomly shoot stuff into my body. I will shoot first. I just got rid of the last crap that I exposed my body to and I don’t plan to do it again if I can help it. I haven’t had a flu shot in thirty years and it’ll be that much longer before I do it again. Every year people catch a flu bug and they USUALLY get over it. You can’t prove to me that folks who get a flu shot get sick less than those that don’t. Sure I get a mild case of the flu once or twice a year and if they are honest, most folks do. It kills far fewer people than driving a car.
Second point: Just because a person is vaccinated does NOT MEAN THEY CAN’T TRANSMIT IT! Vaccinated people are resistant to the virus not immune to exposure. If you think the vaccine is a magic bullet then by all means take it for yourself and you won’t need to worry about those who don’t. And quit whining. Life is dangerous and science can’t change that. Life wouldn’t be worth living if it did. For all those who think they have a right to dictate my actions, I will use as much force as required to change your mind if you get near me. I was taught all my life the value of a free nation and I will spend the rest of it defending that.
By the way, Obama needs to be the first one to get the flu shot, followed by Congress, and ACORN, those Fred Phelp’s Westboro Baptist Church people, and Keith Olbermann too. If the vaccine has adverse reactions, then at least the vaccine works to prevent stupidity. If it works as designed then I apologize to everyone that those people I just mentioned are now immune to the H1N1 virus.
Last estimate I heard was an additional 90K dead this year from swine flu. What I can’t find is any estimate at all as to how many would die if no vaccine at all was taken by the population.
It seems to me that year after year the nations that do not vaccinate (India? China? Zimbabwe?) should be reporting huge death tolls, but I haven’t heard anything like that. Either all countries have effective vaccination programs, or it doesn’t make any difference “really,” or – – – or – – – what?
Anybody know the numbers?
#26 – Benjamin,
You really don’t understand vaccines at all.
1) Vaccines contain either dead or weakened versions of the virus. This is why they are vaccines, not germ warfare.
2) When someone coughs on you, the virus is full strength.
Get the difference? Please, do a little research before posting on a topic about which you know less than nothing.
#26–Benji==I’m sorry. Didn’t catch your call out until Scotts post made me go back. I’m tending to skip over your posts as they too often aren’t worth reading. Your simple minded ignorance isn’t up to a conversation.
Now, I admire the way you haven’t feigned insult or gone catatonic over my own childish ways but “really”==just look at yourself.
First you post that vaccines don’t work, and then you ask for information on how they work. Ever hear the expression about putting the cart before the horse? You see, the cart has to be put IN FRONT of the horse in order to pull it, doesn’t work the other way around.
You have to study an issue IN FRONT of forming an opinion, it doesn’t work the other way around.
In this age of google, missing such basics is really an embarrassment. Learn to use google. Its your friend.
Lets see what the wiki has to say? – – – – – – – – – -Yep==says what Scott said with more words: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccines.
Its “Science” Benji. Science. If you aren’t a man of science, how do you define your relationship to the universe?