‘Bugs’ May Not Be Out Of New Flu Vaccine Policy
Prince George, BC – The Hospital Employees Union is surprised by the new provincial policy requiring all health care workers and others who come into contact with patients to receive the flu vaccine – calling it heavy-handed.
While the union says the intention of infection-control policies are good, this one came without consultation. And HEU spokesperson, Margi Blamey, says the announcement has come at the height of summer, when many are on holidays. She says the reactions of those affected may be delayed until the reality of the new policy hits in the first or second week of October, when the flu vaccine becomes available.
Blamey says the HEU has encouraged members to get the annual flu vaccine for years, but it has always been voluntary. The added element of requiring health-care workers who don’t get the shot to wear a surgical mask for the entire five-month flu season raises a lot of questions. "That’s a lot of surgical masks," says Blamey. "And it’s going to cost a lot of money." She adds that for workers dealing with seniors in residential care, the masks could be very disconcerting for the patients and could complicate communication.
"It is going to be very interesting to see how this new policy is implemented by the health authorities."
The provincial health officer says approximately 50-percent of health care workers in acute care facilities, and 63-percent of those in long term care facilities get the vaccine each year in BC. That compares to a 98 to 99-percent immunization rate at US health care facilities.
But Blamey says the key to increasing vaccination rates within the health care workforce is more effective education and improved access – meaning immunization clinics right in the workplace.
The HEU says it will be working with its allied unions in the health care sector to thoroughly review the policy and coordinate a response to its implementation.
Comments
shut up and get the shots already.
Disease spreading in our hospitals has nothing to do with minimum wage paying, non union house keeping companies does it?
Everyone know how much harder a person works once they are in a union, especially a public service union(tongue planted firmly in cheek:P )
Guess we`re approaching the period where we have to line up for our rations of soylent green…
“shut up and get the shots already’
If I was a health care worker and they told me the vaccine was going to prevent me from getting the flu then I would have no problem getting the shot! But the problem is the flu vaccines are driven by fear and greedy drug companies that can’t gaurantee that they are going to work. So they can keep their anti-freeze, mercury, dead virus’s and other garbage they put in those vaccines.
I hope the workers fight this. It’s a violation of their rights.
The problem with vaccines is that they work too well. People in developed countries these days have never had to face a major plague, so they start to believe conspiracy theories and other such things.
Its a gross violation of the workers rights.
No vaccine is 100% safe and works for its intended purpose even 80% of the time. 60% of kids with whopping cough in the western US outbreak were vaccinated against whopping cough.
A Parentâs Guide: What to do if Your Child Dies After Vaccination
http://vactruth.com/2012/08/21/autopsy-medical-tests/
Just wash your hands and stay away from other people if you are sick. Thats all that really needs to happen. The rest is about profits for pharmaceutical companies.
You probably wouldn’t feel as such if some nurse carrying a flu virus which could have been vaccinated against passes it along to an elderly relative or young child in the hospital.
That’s a different issue Johnny. They shouldn’t be working if they have the flu. That is what sick days are for. If they washed their hands and so did the patients than its not an issue.
Cutting back on sanitary conditions and forcing vaccinations is not the solution. It may save money, but people have rights and shouldn’t be letting their guard down.
The issue is a persons right to not be told what to put in their body.
Hey Johnny, I was thinking you might want to cut back on the salt pills you put in your water.
Eagleone
They work around people whose immune systems are compromised by illness or disease. Add to this that these workers are contagious for a day or two before symptoms of the flu appear, it is a no-brainer.
No one will force them to take the vaccine, they will just have to wear a mask during flu season if they don’t want a poke in the arm.
If you contracted a cold or flu bug chances are it was in your system waiting for your immune system to lower enough to take hold…
The report states:
“new provincial policy requiring all health care workers and others who come into contact with patients to receive the flu vaccine”
Then it goes on to state: “the added element of requiring health-care workers who don’t get the shot to wear a surgical mask for the entire five-month flu season raises a lot of questions.”
It sure does raise an important question to me.
Why is there a requirement to get flu shots and then talk about what does who do not get shots have to do.
Either there is a requirement, or there isn’t. Which is it?
As to what is more likely to be effective if wearing mask can be enforced, is to protect the receiver rather than the potential spreader. Remember, there are visitors and likely a few others who come in contact with patients as well.
“They work around people whose immune systems are compromised by illness or disease. Add to this that these workers are contagious for a day or two before symptoms of the flu appear, it is a no-brainer.”
^^^ This.
Right Eagle?
The rights of the individual should always be paramount to the needs of the herd. That’s how I want to live my life and I’m willing to take whatever consequences flow from that.
I wouldn’t want some young health care worker to be forced to take a shot that “might” keep me from getting sick when I’m old and frail and “might” hurt them instead. That would be completely wrong.
Immunizations are sketchy at best. We shouldn’t be forcing them on anyone. We shouldn’t allow something for which it is impossible to verify the efficacy of to become ubiquitous in our society, especially when there is clearly a profit motive at play.
Sine Nomine-
As stated earlier “No one will force them to take the vaccine, they will just have to wear a mask during flu season if they don’t want a poke in the arm. “
Does my rights as an individual mean I can drive as fast as I want? Those whose financial systems are compromised by lack of work or low wages and walk or ride a bike will have to accept the consequences of my right to go 120k on the city streets?
I was told by two pharmacists and a forensic patholigist that all you’re taking is a chicken embryo and sticking it in your vein. They said they would never take it. So, no, I’m not gonna do dat!
Think some posters are right, Drug companies need people to be scared to raise their profits.
Dear lonesome,
Believing in the rights of the individual necessarily mean that you respect the rights of other individuals as well. Did you really think that I meant MY INDIVIDUAL rights and no one else matters? I swear nobody reads anymore.
You got that right Sine Nomine.
Perhaps the Provincial Government, could take a few minutes out of its busy day, and advise us the following stats.
How many people were made sick or killed by the flu before the invention of these fancy flu shots, and how many after.
Our illustrious Government is trying to do all sorts of things to give the impression that they are in fact governing. When all they are doing is making up more stupid laws, and regulations, that makes life more difficult for the average Joe, and rarely do they give the supporting facts.
Problem is people (sheep) buy into this BS, and take it as fact. Therein lies the problem. Governments in general and this Liberal Government in particular have great difficulty in telling the truth.
A case in point. A number of years ago the Government did a study on the use of cell phones in vehicles and the effect they had on driving and accidents.
The study indicated that talking on a cell phone did in fact distract drivers, and as a consequence contributed to accidents. They then passed legislation to restrict the use of hand held devices while driving.
Now on the surface this looks like a good piece of legislation, however what they didnt tell you was that the study also showed that using blue tooth or some other device that did not need to be held, was also distracting to the same degree as a hand held device, however they did not pass any legislation to restrict these devices.
The study showed that the accidents were caused by the distraction not the devices.
So why not restrict all devices in vehicles?? Could it be because of pressure from the manufacturers?? Who knows, however the bottom line is that by only solving 50% of the problem they still have a problem. Of course there are many other kinds of distractions, so who knows if they actually solved any problems.
All this BS is being put out by the Government to give the impression that they are doing something, when in fact they are floundering, and facing a crushing defeat in the next election.
We need LESS rules and regulation, bylaws, and laws, not more.
Wow, who would have thought health workers
getting a flu shot was anything but logical. Given the devastation caused by spreading it in a hospital environment, why wouldn’t a caring worker be all over it?
Can’t wait to hear the tin foil responses.
I realize that you are one of the posters on here for whom the world is separated into white and black and not into various ranges of grey.
There is enough information gathered over the years that puts immunization into a grey area and that grey area means that whether one wishes to take flu shots or not needs to remain a personal decision.
An old, but still very relevant report on the Swine Flu scare in 1976. Humans have not stopped making mistakes yet. In fact, in my observation, we seem to be making more of them as the years progress, in part due to attitudes such as yours, Dow7500 ….
http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=F12FF73E0BEFCAA997FA8E4401741093
BTW, this is not some conspiray theory, it is simply the medical epidemiological statistical numbers game. There is no certainty with flu shots. There is only probability and risk. Some people may not wish to take that risk, especially if they have a known condition which places them in a higher risk category.
Everybody’s body is different.
Of course its not 100% effective. But it is statistically effective. Maybe a I do view things in a bit more black and white than you Gus, but this non issue is a shining example of what holds back our society. Everything is a debate. How many union employees will be on this file stirring the pot. Waste of time and resources. Hell, lets commision a study, maybe hire a few consultants, send the union heads for a symposium in Bali. This is why our plodding health system can’t evolve. If someone has a medical reason for no shot then obviously it won’t happen. If somone won’t get a shot based on some drug company conspiracy, well then, where the mask.
As for not consulting, I didn’t know health workers had first nation status. The inmates don’t run the asylum.
More importantly, these are health care workers, who work around comprimised immune systems all the time. They aren’t in a logging camp. This should be a non-issue when patient out comes can be improved.
I have come to realize that gus and others suffer from an affliction called Analysis Paralysis.
“The term “analysis paralysis” or “paralysis of analysis” refers to over-analyzing (or over-thinking) a situation, so that a decision or action is never taken, in effect paralyzing the outcome. A decision can be treated as over-complicated, with too many detailed options, so that a choice is never made, rather than try something and change if a major problem arises. A person might be seeking the optimal or “perfect” solution upfront, and fear making any decision which could lead to erroneous results, when on the way to a better solution.”
Primum non nocere….cornerstone of modern healthcare. Walking around hospitals like typhoid Mary flies in the face of this principal.
Opposed to vaccination-fine, wear a mask. I suspect mortuary workers will get a pass;)
British Medical Journal shot down the flu shot a few years ago, imagine that! What happened? The Americans got all upset because of the profits vaccine makers were going to lose. How did the vaccine makers respond! We better get those profits up so lets tell people that healthy kids need not only one flu shot per season but two.
You immune system is an amazing thing and will actually be weakened by the vaccine. Health workers have a better change of being flu free by not having the flu shot and following basic proven procedures for staying healthy. The flu shot gives you a false sense of “I’ve had the flu shot so what I’m feeling can’t be the flu.”
I would rather wear a tinfoil hat over a sheeps suit Dow7500. If I would of chose a sheeps suit my kid would still be on a puffer for ashma and would of been prescribed ritalin for ADHD. Thank goodness my tinfoil hat told me to search out other opinions.
Jury is still out on vaccinations? I wonder what ever happened to polio and smallpox?
I have come to realize that JB and others suffer from an affliction called Over-Simplification.
The result causes distortion, error, misrepresentation and misconception. It does not require a lengthy explanation.
Those vaccines worked lonesome sparrow the flu shot might work or might not. It all depends on how well they GUESS 6 months before the flu season starts.
The major error you are making is thinking that what goes on in a virtual chat is what happens in real life.
This place is a place to do just that, chat without any conclusions or actions reached because they are not expected to be reached. THAT is why such places all look like bitchin’ places. That is even why such places are opportunities to have some fun with statements which would be restrained around a board/work table.
In my real world – and I expect the same of many others who have the time to post their comments on here and then go back to their real world of action – I run/ran projects which get built, produced, delivered, etc. by going through the full iterative process of problem identification, analysis, synthesis, development, implementation, evaluation. Available time and money are generally the constraints which put limits on how much work is done to produce the best result under the circumstances.
JB, if you do not understand that simple notion, I think you must just be a troll.
Thanks NoWay, I did not realize that you used your severance package to become a virologist:)
“This place is a place to do just that, chat without any conclusions or actions reached”
That sounds a lot like a place on Patricia Bvld:O
LOL …
It was easy lonesome sparrow, the online course took a couple of days and I got to print out my certificate. Now I can guess like the rest if them! :)
“JB, if you do not understand that simple notion, I think you must just be a troll. “
You had me right up until the name calling at the end. Sorry if I touched a nerve.
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