Hospitals across the US are forcing employees to be vaccinated or be fired

All across the US, health facilities are giving their employees and ultimatum: get a flu shot, or get fired. Hundreds of health care providers have already lost their jobs. In October 2012, Rhode Island implemented a mandate for all health care workers with direct patient contact to be immunized. In Ohio, TriHealth offered its 11,000 employees flu shots, and fired more than 150 workers who didn’t comply by November 2012 deadline. These mandates might have done more to boot doctors and nurses from their jobs than to protect people’s health.

Even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that most people get a flu shot, a new review of studies published by The Lancet Infectious Diseases finds that early flu vaccines are generally only 59% effective against current flu strains for people ages 18 to 65, the age range which encompasses most working adults. This lack of effectiveness means that getting a flu shot should be advised, rather than mandated, and refusing to get a flu shot should not be a terminable offense.

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