After a holiday hiatus, I am resuming my “director’s cut” look at one of my weekly Facebook posts. Look for this feature on the last Wednesday of the month.
The most discussed topic of the past month was mandatory flu vaccines for healthcare workers. In the midst of a more-severe-than-usual flu season, there have been several stories about nurses losing their jobs for declining the vaccine. We discussed an incident in Indiana reported here and here, and a case from Missouri covered here. In both instances, the nurses cited religious beliefs as contributing to their refusal, with some mention of safety concerns. They felt that they had a right to decide what went into their bodies, and that mandatory vaccination policies conflicted with that right and their religious freedoms.
The Facebook discussion was fairly positive in favor of vaccination. There was a consensus that vaccinating healthcare workers was an important measure for protecting patients and minimizing the spread of disease in healthcare settings, although some folks did stop short of endorsing blanket mandates. One participant noted that these policies are sometimes applied across all hospital departments regardless of the amount of contact with patients; many transcriptionists, chart coders and other administrative personnel work offsite.