If I refuse the Flu Vaccine my medical practice will be terminated.

[Serpo]

We change the world by doing the right thing............no one else will bother........

[sunshine05]

Here's another good link to keep up with information on vaccines and the law.
http://www.nvic.org/

[Serpo]

Here's another good link to keep up with information on vaccines and the law.
http://www.nvic.org/

Turning Vaccine Exemption into Class Warfare
It is getting uglier and uglier out there, as angry, frustrated doctors inside and outside of government work overtime to foster fear and hatred of parents making conscious vaccine choices for their children. The latest political dirty trick is to brand parents, who send their children to private schools, as selfish and a threat to their communities because some private schools have higher vaccine exemption rates...
Find a Compassionate Doctor to Help You Prevent Vaccine Injuries
It is really up to parents to find a doctor they can trust, who will take the precautionary approach to giving more vaccines in the face of previous vaccine reactions, like seizures, especially if the child has symptoms of brain injury...
Merck Lawsuit Reignites Vaccine Safety Concerns
In 2010 two virologists, Stephen Krahling and Joan Wlochowski, filed a lawsuit against their former employer and vaccine manufacturer Merck. The lawsuit, which was unsealed in late June, alleges that Merck defrauded the U.S. for over 10 years by overstating the MMR vaccine’s effectiveness...
Doctors Slam Parents for Vaccine Choices & FDA Licenses New Combo Vaccine
Public health doctors are slapping the label of “shot limiters” on parents giving their babies fewer vaccines. It has become fashionable in medical journals and media circles to demonize these parents, who engage in critical thinking about vaccination...
CA Bill Restricting Personal Belief Vaccine Exemption Heats Up
If this bill passes and parents do not obtain a signature from a designated doctor or medical care practitioner on the personal belief vaccine exemption form, the child will be barred from attending school...
NVAC: Parents Question Why Vaccinated Kids are Getting Pertussis
During the Washington state report, Dr. DeBolt noted that one of Washington’s biggest challenges in this outbreak were parents questioning the pertussis vaccine’s efficacy. According to Dr. DeBolt the state has been “flooded by phone calls” from parents, stating that their child was up-to-date on pertussis vaccination and had still contracted pertussis...
Feds Poised to Expand Vaccine Injury Table
The federal Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines (ACCV) unanimously passed recommendations made by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report Task Force on Updating the Vaccine Injury Table...
Americans Fight for Vaccine Choice - Vermont Keeps Exemption!
The proliferation of new vaccines that have been added in the past 25 years to the government mandated child vaccination schedule, coupled with growing awareness that many highly vaccinated children are chronically ill, is powering the new citizen activism...
NVIC Opposes FDA Fast-Tracking of Vaccines
If FDA regulatory standards are too low, the informed public will question and resist using newly licensed vaccines...
Flu Shot Mandates for Health Care Workers Recommended by Feds and Passed in Colorado
Adult influenza vaccine injury claims are the leading claim in the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. The Feds and the State of Colorado do not support flexible medical, religious and conscientious belief exemptions...

[midnight rambler]

Major study - no evidence of benefit/no value from flu vax - http://gaia-health.com/gaia-blog/201...oration-study/

[Silver Rocket Bitches!]

You could always fake an egg allergy. No shot for those allergic to eggs.

[sirgonzo420]

I have a family member who ended up with Guillain-Barré after getting a flu shot.

They are in recovery still; having trouble getting around, but at least they didn't get the flu!

[osoab]

Hey Doc, is there any way you can find out if the board that runs your hospital is on the dole of the corporation that is delivering your batch of the flu vaccine?

I didn't see this angle posted. This is the first year, guessing from the op, that they have forced this issue. "Why now" is my thought.

[sunshine05]

http://www.anh-usa.org/flu-sho-force...ealth-workers/

[mamboni]

Fighting this mandatory flu vaccine is worse than fighting the tide:

http://www.immunize.org/honor-roll/

After reading several papers, the risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome s/p flu vaccination is ~1-2 cases per million. I haven't found specific quality data on the other severe neurologic side-effects. CDC recommends vaccination of healthcare workers with direct patient contact; but it does not mandate or recommend a mandate. However, numerous professional societies in the link above are recommending mandatory vaccination of healthcare workers. My perusal of the medical literature says that flu vaccination has minimal effect on decreased sick days or serious illness. I can find only one study claiming decreased flu infection of patients associated with increased vaccination of health care providers, the cruxt of the entire argument for mandating vaccination:

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2004 Nov;25(11):923-8.

Preventing nosocomial influenza by improving the vaccine acceptance rate of clinicians.

Salgado CD, Giannetta ET, Hayden FG, Farr BM.


Source

Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina 29425, USA.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:

To assess the effects of interventions to prevent transmission of influenza and to increase employee compliance with influenza vaccination.


DESIGN:

The change in the proportion of hospitalized patients with laboratory-confirmed nosocomial influenza was observed over time and assessed using chi-square for trend analysis. The association between nosocomial influenza in patients and healthcare worker (HCW) compliance with vaccine was assessed by logistic regression.


SETTING:

A 600-bed, tertiary-care academic hospital.


METHODS:

After an outbreak of influenza A at this hospital in 1988, a mobile cart program was instituted with increased efforts to motivate employees to be vaccinated and furloughed when ill as well as new measures to prevent nosocomial spread.


RESULTS:

HCW vaccination rates increased from 4% in 1987-1988 to 67% in 1999-2000 (P < .0001). Proportions of nosocomially acquired influenza cases among employees or patients both declined significantly (P < .0001). Logistic regression analysis revealed a significant inverse association between HCW compliance with vaccination and the rate of nosocomial influenza among patients (P < .001).


CONCLUSION:

A mobile cart vaccination program and an increased emphasis on HCWs to receive the vaccine were associated with a significant increase in vaccine acceptance and a significant decrease in the rate of nosocomial influenza among patients.

PMID: 15566025 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

[mamboni]

Major study - no evidence of benefit/no value from flu vax - http://gaia-health.com/gaia-blog/201...oration-study/

Yeah, I read that study, most of it. The problem is arguing that the marginal immunity provided to health care workers isn't worth the partial prevention of nosocomial infection (i.e. doctors vaccinated less likely to transmit flu to his patient, or so the theory goes). Unless one can demonstrate significant numbers of severe neurologic side effects of the vaccine it is hard to argue against the vaccination of healthcare workers.