Emergency rooms across the nation are filling with patients with flu symptoms.
This season’s influenza vaccine is about 60 percent effective, which is a good match for prevalent flu strains, according to the CDC. (Flickr)
Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have said this year’s flu season came early and may be more severe than in years past. More than 40 states are reporting widespread flu cases with more than 2,200 people reported hospitalized. Eighteen children have died.
This season’s influenza vaccine is about 60 percent effective, which is a good match for prevalent flu strains, according to the CDC.
To protect patients that aren’t hospitalized for flu symptoms or complications some hospitals are making it mandatory for healthcare workers to get the flu shot.
While some workers are OK with complying with this new policy, others feel the imposition infringes on their employee rights.
Riverside County hospitals have no such mandate at this time, but there has been a push at the national level, said Cameron Kaiser, interim public health officer with Riverside County Department of Public Health.
“From my point of view, I think it would be difficult to implement in this county,” Kaiser said. “It might be dangerous if someone had a severe reaction and could backfire on the department. But we do strongly believe everyone able to get the flu shot should get it.
“And that goes double for healthcare workers because they work with immune-lowered patients.”
The CDC recommends nearly everyone age 6 months and older get the flu shot. Those who should not get the flu shot include people who have a several allergy to eggs, those who have had a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine in the past and people with a history of Guillain-Barré Syndrome.
Proponents of the mandate say an egg-free alternative is available to those who have an egg allergy.
Over the past few weeks several hospitals have made national news as employees were fired for failing to comply with new flu vaccine policies.
On Monday, a board-certified holistic nurse who worked for the past 11 years at Cox South Hospital in Springfield, Missouri was terminated for violating her hospital’s policy on wearing a surgical mask while working.
The nurse, Carla Brock, was required to wear the mask because she opted out of the hospital’s mandatory flu shot policy.
Brock told USA Today she felt singled out by the mask requirement and that the mask made it difficult to breathe and gave her headaches. She chose not to get the flu vaccine for religious reasons.
In December, an Indiana hospital fired eight employees after they refused mandatory flu shots. Three of the workers were longtime nurses.
The hospital said in a statement that the mandate was implemented to promote patient safety based on recommendations from the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association and the CDC.
In California, several hospitals have also begun requiring vaccinations for healthcare workers, including those in Alameda County, Contra Costa County, El Dorado County, Sacramento County and several others. Some require either the vaccination or masking, while others simply require the vaccination.
Kaiser Permanente employees are not required to get the flu vaccine, but are offered the immunization free of charge each year. And those who choose not the get the annual vaccination are required to read, complete and sign the Influenza Vaccine Declination form.
“The health of Kaiser Permanente’s patients and employees is our number one focus,” said Karen Roberts, public affairs director for Riverside County Kaiser Permanente.
Riverside County Public Health Officer Cameron Kaiser says he can see both sides of the controversial issue.
“I want people to do it, but I wouldn’t order them to,” he said. “But in all fairness to the other side … many have been successful. There are a lot of statistics that support the move to mandating flu shots for hospital workers. For many of those that have tried it, it has been effective.”
Jennifer Dean is a local writer and regular contributor to SWRNN.
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For those that choose not to get the shot, maybe instead of firing them, if the hospital feels that strongly about the health risk, and the workers feel that strongly about their personal right not to be forced, both parties could meet in the middle more? Maybe a better solution to termination would be a term piracy layoff until this flu season is over, then those parties that opt out of the vaccination may return to work?
Very good suggestion, I will tell you I am a nurse allergic to the shot and I work in a buisness office of a home care. I have been harrassed on a weekly basis by my director trying to reinforce things that are not in the policy regarding wearing a flu mask. I also feel that if employee’s are forced to vaccinate then anyone entering the hospital including pt’s that are not immunocompromised must be vaccinatated prior to being treated. My other feeling is if the vaccine is only 60 percent effective, then shouldn’t everyone wear a mask regardless of if they got the flu vaccine. I am now being told that they will not provide masks or receptacles to throw masks away at the door. It will be my responsibility to carry masks around with me on my time off so I can place the mask on prior to entering the non pt filled building. then I can no longer take the mask off prior to leaving the office (where I would have thrown it in an appropriate recepticle. I now have to take it into my car, to go pick my children up at school and daycare. Now If I got the flu I would be spreading more germs due to the dirtly little mask. I also want to suggest the government paying for me to get a new degree, as I have spent years of time and money in building my career and since I can not get the flu shot and now know employment will be made difficult due to cdc reccomendation the government has caused me to be ousted from my current profession. I have one more point to make. the day after they did the first mass influenza vaccine in my office close to 1/2 of the staff was out sick for 1-3 days. does the cdc/employer take a head count when this occurs, especially since they stress the flu shot does not cause the flu (well it certainly causes ailment)? Does the CDC take a count of how many persons who receive the flu vaccine get the flu during flu season vs those who don’t get it