BLOGGER VS. BLOGGER: Flu Shot, or Not?

As flu-related deaths reached “epidemic” levels this week, hospitals increasingly are moving to enforce their influenza vaccination mandates, according to AP/Modern Healthcare. Over the past two months, more than a dozen hospital employees in four states have declined to get the vaccination and have lost their jobs as a result.

In a recent post for NBCNews’ “Vitals,” Arthur Kaplan — head of division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center — writes that the ethical reasons for obtaining a flu shot outweigh personal self-interest.

He notes that newborns and those who are immune-compromised due to diseases, transplants, or cancer therapies cannot benefit from flu shots, while seniors do not build up as much of a resistance to the virus and fetuses are at risk of dying from the flu unless their mother is vaccinated.

Kaplan writes, “The best protection those in these high-risk groups have is for those they come in contact with to have been vaccinated. … You may not die from the flu. They could.”

Meanwhile, in an opinion post for USA Today, Marc Siegel — an associate professor of medicine and medical director of Doctor Radio at Langone — writes that flu vaccination mandates “seem admirable at a time when the flu season is off to its earliest start since 2003-04, but these mandates might have done more to boot doctors and nurses from their jobs than to protect people’s health.”

According to Siegel, educating health care workers is a much better solution to the influenza outbreak than mandating vaccinations. He notes that “because the yearly flu vaccine is generally only 60% effective against the prevailing strains, taking it should be advised, not mandated, even in a bad season.” He concludes by stating there is “no medical justification” for firing a health care worker for refusing a shot.

OUR TAKE: Siegel’s argument does not resolve Kaplan’s assertion that influenza vaccinations are for the greater good, rather than personal gain. Hospital personnel in particular have an obligation to the patients under their care not to transmit influenza to them. A hospital’s flu vaccine mandate should be made clear when the worker is hired. This way, if the worker is opposed to receiving flu vaccination, she or he can choose to seek work elsewhere.

— by Hanna Jaquith, staff writer