Influenza Vaccination: Is it Our Duty?

by on October 2, 2012

in Health and Wellness

Intriguing opinion piece in the New York Times about Health Care Workers and the influenza vaccine. The author believes we have a duty. Do you agree? Share your opinions in the comments.

From EMS1.com – 3 Reasons You Need the Flu Vaccine

Read and learn more in Rogue Medic’s post – Mandatory Flu Shots for EMS? First Do No Harm?

Share

Related posts:

  1. Event: National Influenza Vaccination Week
  2. Tips to Reduce Influenza Transmission
  3. H1N1 Influenza Lessons Learned

Tagged as: Duty, Health, Influenza, New York, New York Times, Vaccination, Vaccine, Wellness

  • http://twitter.com/unwiredmedic Christopher Matthews

    It’s a tough one Greg, no doubt. We can be asymptomatic vectors of the influenza virus without vaccination, so if we then infect a patient or bystander, have we not violated the cardinal rule of medicine, “First, do no harm”? Do the employers have a right to force us to get it? I believe they do. But, as a condition of employment, they must provide it. It sounds like another discussion spreading across EMS right now, huh? Liability. Is the employer liable if the disease spread is tracked down to one of their employees? Is the employee personally liable? Does liability cease if they received a vaccination, but never developed immunity? Also, if it’s a civic duty, then the entire public should be mandatory, like schools can mandate vaccinations before admission.

  • http://roguemedic.com/ Rogue Medic

    Was it a duty for Typhoid Mary to stop transmitting typhoid to her customers?

    We do need better evidence of the amount of transmission of influenza by medical personnel to our patients, but it is not reasonable to assume that it does not happen.

    My freedom ends when I begin to harm others. When I harm others by avoiding a shot (or nasal spray) that is a minor inconvenience, I am not exercising any kind of due regard for my patients.

    We are around the sickest patients – the ones going to the emergency department, often from nursing homes.

    These are the most vulnerable to the influenza complications that have killed 3,000 to 49,000 people a year over the past 31 years.

    http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/us_flu-related_deaths.htm

    .

  • Pingback: Mandatory Flu Shots for EMS? First do no harm? | Rogue Medic

  • Too Old To Work

    What we need is proof that flu vaccines work. Unlike vaccines for well established and non mutating (as much as anything is non mutating) diseases the flu is different every year. The vaccine made for 2012/13 use in the US is based on what was seen last year in Asia. It’s a very well educated guess as to what we’ll actually get, but it is a guess.

    This article in The Atlantic raises some interesting questions.
    http://tinyurl.com/9mpzmt8

    I’m not expert enough to critique the article, but it’s something worth thinking about.

Previous post:

Next post: