It's gonna start getting REAL ugly REAL quick...This is the first state I've heard of that is to REQUIRE health care workers to get the h1n1
shots...49 more states to go....
The New York State Health Department is REQUIRING tens of thousands of health care workers across the state to be vaccinated for flu, amid fears that
swine flu will return in the fall.
NY to healthcare personnel: Get all the flu shots (H1N1 too)
Published: August 18, 2009
The State Health Department is requiring tens of thousands of health care workers across the state to be vaccinated for flu, amid fears that swine flu
will return in the fall.
The new regulation, quietly adopted as an emergency on Thursday, affects workers at hospitals, in home health care agencies and in hospice care, but,
because of a technicality in state law, not in nursing homes.
The regulation raised protest Tuesday from New York’s largest health care union, 1199 S.E.I.U. United Healthcare Workers East, whose president,
George Gresham, said that the policy was “completely unprecedented” and could become punitive if the religious or cultural beliefs of workers
prevented them from being vaccinated.
“Health care workers on the front lines of providing care deserve the dignity and respect of thoughtful consideration before a regulation like this
can just be rushed through and put into effect,” Mr. Gresham said.
Until now, flu vaccination has been voluntary, and fewer than half of health care workers have been vaccinated in a typical season, state health
officials said.
The new regulation, which REQUIRES vaccination against seasonal flu AND the H1N1 virus, would affect workers and volunteers who come into direct
contact with patients, including nurses, doctors and aides, and even nonmedical staff members like food service workers if they enter a patient’s
room, a Health Department spokeswoman, Diane Mathis, said.
Ms. Mathis declined to comment on Mr. Gresham’s criticism, but said that health officials had met with the union and other professional associations
to discuss the proposal before it was adopted.
She said that vaccination was “clearly a patient safety issue.”
www.nytimes.com...
[edit on 19-8-2009 by smilinggrandma]
[edit on 19-8-2009 by smilinggrandma]