eek 5 Discussion
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Healthcare staff do not need to receive the flu vaccine if they do not wish to get it
Problem Statement
Flu-related disease affects a large number of individuals every year. Hospitals are flooded with emergency room visits and consequent hospitalizations owing to flu complications throughout the flu season (Babcock et al., 2010). The general people are often uninformed of the necessity of vaccination and is often misled about influenza vaccine facts. While many health care institutions have made attempts to encourage workers to vaccinate via voluntary compliance, vaccination rates remain low, and health care institutions are increasingly requiring workers to vaccinate as a condition of employment or face termination. Mandatory vaccinations raise ethical concerns about people’s freedom to choose and the health hazards that vaccines represent. I think that flu vaccination should be a personal option for healthcare workers, and that no one should be compelled to participate. Employees’ freedom to exercise cultural and religious liberties is taken away by mandating them and threatening them with their employment (Babcock et al., 2010). Vaccine mandates, particularly flu shots, take away that freedom for people from all over the globe who come here in search of it. Vaccinations should not go against anyone’s religious or cultural beliefs
Literature Review
Animal components, such as those from pigs or cows, are found in many vaccinations. Some faiths, like Islam and Judaism, forbid people from consuming items from these animals. A mandated flu vaccination would be a breach of the First Amendment’s protection of “rights of association and belief,” which ensure religious freedom (McCartney, 2018). It would be utterly unlawful to force someone to obtain a vaccination if it is against their beliefs. Some individuals opt to live a vegan lifestyle, and the use of animal products in vaccinations is incompatible with their views.
A mandated vaccination would severely limit people’s freedoms. The majority of individuals believe they should be able to choose what goes into their bodies (McCartney, 2018). The right to one’s own body and the ability to choose what goes into it would be taken away if a mandated vaccination were introduced. Many labor unions oppose obligatory vaccination measures in the event of a flu outbreak. Vaccination is opposed by groups for medical, religious, personal, philosophical, and conscientious grounds, according to the National Vaccine Information Center’s newsletter.
References
Babcock, H. M., Gemeinhart, N., Jones, M., Dunagan, W. C., & Woeltje, K. F. (2010). Mandatory influenza vaccination of health care workers: translating policy to practice. Clinical infectious diseases, 50(4), 459-464.
McCartney, M. (2018). Margaret McCartney: Mandatory flu vaccination won’t fix the NHS. BMJ: British Medical Journal (Online), 360.
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