‘It’s a basis right to say what is and isn’t put into your body.’
Providence Alaska Medical Center has implemented a new policy telling its employees to either get a flu shot or get fired, and some workers are fighting it.
According to Providence, the Centers for Disease Control said it is unethical for health workers to not get a flu vaccine.
Providence said flu vaccination rates among its employees were not as high as they should have been, so a new policy has been put into place, forcing all employees to get a shot.
But the new rule has caused controversy, especially among nurses, and the nurses’ union has filed a grievance protesting the policy.
“It is a basic right to say what is and isn’t put in your body,” said Debbie Thompson, president of the Alaska Nurses Association. “There is so many mixed studies on the flu vaccination study right now that it’s hard to say what its success rate is.”
Source: 2 News, KTUU.com, by Lori Tipton, 10 December 2008.
VAN UK’S Comment: Nurses say it’s a right to decide what is put in the body yet in the States parents cannot choose until they file exemptions, some of which are denied, so it seems as if there is one rule for parents and another for the medical profession.
