Victory for Toronto Nurses: Rationale for Nurses Who Refuse Flu Vaccine to Wear Masks “Insufficient, Inadequate, and Completely Unpersuasive”

The Ontario Nurses' Association has won a major victory over St. Michael's Hospital and eight other Toronto-area hospitals, as labour arbitrator William Kaplan wrote in a 53-page decision that forcing unvaccinated nurses to wear surgical masks during the flu season is a policy that is "insufficient, inadequate, and completely unpersuasive.” The hospital failed to prove that nurses who didn't have flu symptoms were a significant source of infection and therefore would be required to wear masks if they weren't inoculated, Mr. Kaplan said in his decision. Mr. Kaplan also heard an expert, Lisa Brosseau, a professor of environmental and occupational health sciences, testify that surgical masks fit poorly and aren't an effective form of protection. The arbitrator said it was illogical to force nurses who aren't immunized to be masked when St. Michael’s isn't as strict with unvaccinated visitors. "If masking is truly effective as source control, how can it be that they too are not required to mask? The answer to this question reveals that the masking part of the policy is, as one St. Michael’s witness admitted, 'weak,' ” Mr. Kaplan wrote.

WARNING: Dangerous Flu Shots Being Given to Children Without Parental Consent

The annual influenza vaccine is, by far, the most dangerous vaccine in the United States. This is evident from the quarterly reports the Department of Justice (DOJ) supplies every 3 months to the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines (ACCV) as mandated by the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP). Compensation paid through settlements in the federal Vaccine Court for injuries or deaths due to vaccines are highest for the annual flu shot, comprising more settlements than all other vaccines currently approved for the US market combined. The last report from September of 2018, for example, listed 73 settlements from 198 cases, and of those 73 settlements for that 3-month period, 48 of the cases were for harm caused by the flu vaccine. The actual number of people who are confirmed to have died with the influenza virus is only a few hundred each year, and most of those already have a compromised immune system that makes them more susceptible to the flu virus. On the other hand, each year there are reports that healthy people are dying or being permanently injured after receiving a flu vaccine. So there really is no good justification for anyone to give a child a flu vaccine and put that child at risk, without consulting with the child's parents first. And yet, news reports across the United States indicates that this is indeed happening. In some of the reports we have heard, some parents have even signed statements that they did NOT want their child to receive a flu vaccine, but the child got one anyway. So how can this be justified? I asked Health Impact News foreign correspondent, Christina England, to look into this matter, as our initial reports indicated that the rationale for subverting parental consent to the flu vaccine might have come from a document published by the World Health Organization (WHO), defining something called "Implied Consent," and is not unique to just the United States.

Department of Justice Sues County in Wisconsin Over Nurse Being Forced to Receive Flu Shot Against Her Religious Beliefs

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a civil rights lawsuit against Ozaukee County, an affluent suburb just north of Milwaukee, for forcing a nursing assistant at their county-owned and operated nursing home and rehabilitation facility to receive a mandatory flu shot as a condition for her continued employment. Barnell Williams was a nursing assistant at Lasata Care Center, which has a policy of mandating flu shots for all of its employees. However, Lasata permitted employees to obtain a religious exemption from the vaccination requirement, allowing them to wear protective masks during the flu season instead of receiving the shot. According to the lawsuit, Williams applied for the religious exemption, but was denied because she was not part of a religious organization that had a "clergy" attest to her belief. Williams allegedly brought a "To Whom it May Concern" letter explaining her religious objection, as well as testimonials from others about the sincerity of her religious belief, but she was allegedly denied the opportunity to even present these documents.

Chairman of Israel Medical Association and World Medical Association Opposes Mandatory Flu Vaccines for Doctors

In order to get a perspective on sane and rational vaccine policy, we must again turn away from the U.S. corporate media and their primary advertising sponsors, the pharmaceutical industry. The flu vaccine is, by far, the most prosperous vaccine produced and sold in the U.S., with over 300 million doses produced annually. It is also the leading vaccine, by far, injuring and killing people as evidenced by the quarterly Department of Justice (DOJ) reports of vaccine injury and death compensations by the Vaccine Court. In the U.S., one cannot sue a pharmaceutical company for injuries or deaths related to vaccines. By simply reading the U.S. corporate "mainstream" media one is led to believe that all doctors and medical personnel support mass flu vaccination, and believe all medical staff should be forced to receive the flu vaccine every year. But such is not the case. As we have reported over the past several years, many doctors and nurses nationwide oppose mandatory flu vaccination for medical personnel. There are several lawsuits by individuals and unions nationwide fighting loss of employment due to refusing a flu vaccine. The Jerusalem Post recently reported that Prof. Leonid Eidelman, chairman of the Israel Medical Association and the next president of the World Medical Association, opposes mandatory flu vaccinations for doctors, and he opposes identifying which doctors have been vaccinated for the flu, and which ones have not.

Victory for Medical Choice as New York Supreme Court Reverses Mandatory Flu Vaccine Rule

With little public discussion, the New York Board of Health unanimously passed the Vaccine Powers Rule in 2013. The rule required New York City children attending a day care center or aged 6 months to 59 months to be given a yearly flu vaccination. For a moment, it appeared that children would be excluded from class if they didn’t receive the flu vaccine for the first time in the State’s history. California’s Senate Bill 277, signed into law in 2015, took things further by requiring all students to be up-to-date with all vaccines to receive an education in the state. On December 16th, 2015, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Manuel Mendez ruled on behalf of The Supreme Court of the State of New York to end the mandatory flu vaccine rule. Mendez said in his decision that the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene “lacked the statutory authority” to mandate the influenza vaccines because they are not required under state law.

Are Mandatory Vaccines Creating a Class System in the Workplace?

As we are nearing 2020, it’s a fair question to check in on how close the nation is to reaching the targets set by Healthy People 2020. Perhaps the more important question is how these goals may be creating a discriminatory class system separating the vaccinated versus the unvaccinated in the workplace. Many consider the workplace mandate for annual influenza vaccinations the most disturbing piece of the Healthy People 2020 agenda. The objective calls for mandatory flu shots as a condition of employment among 90% of health care workers. In 2012, monumental federal actions prompted some movement toward that goal. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services implemented a final rule requiring hospitals to report vaccination rates, tying these rates to Medicare reimbursement. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Vaccine Advisory Committee approved recommendations urging health care facilities to consider mandatory flu vaccination policies as a condition of employment. Despite federal actions, many high-profile groups representing health care workers continue to be divided on flu vaccine mandates. The National Nurses Union, the largest nurses union in the country, for example, publicly oppose mandatory vaccinations for health care workers, while the American Nurses Association regularly speaks out in support. But the division does not stop the bullying and humiliation tactics used nationwide to discriminate against health care workers declining to get influenza vaccine, a vaccine that for the past three flu seasons federal health officials admit has had an effectiveness rate of at best 47% to 62%.5 In addition, influenza vaccine-related injuries and deaths are the number one most compensated vaccine injury claim for adults in the federal vaccine injury compensation program (VICP).

Moms Sue NYC Over Mandatory Flu Vaccinations

Five Manhattan and Brooklyn mothers with children in preschool are suing the city over its policy of mandatory flu vaccinations. The parents — ranging from a single mom in an East Harlem housing project to an investment banker in the Flatiron District — claim a 2013 rule passed by the city’s Health Department under Bloomberg is illegal because it was not voted on by state lawmakers. “I am also disturbed that I cannot express my dissent to my elected representatives in the New York Legislature as I understand they never voted ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for this flu dictate and I don’t know who I can hold responsible for foisting this mandate onto me,” gripes one of the moms, Clemence Rasigni, who works for Merrill Lynch.

Non-Medical Office Employees Refuse Flu Shot – Lose Jobs

Megan Duncan, Alanda Watson and Denise Mercurius will report to work Friday morning, as they have done every day for years. Once there, they expect to be fired. The three women — employees of Lutheran Social Ministries of New Jersey, an agency that helps the elderly and the disadvantaged throughout the state — are among a rising number of workers facing termination for refusing to get a flu shot or, as an alternative, wear a surgical mask in the workplace. What differentiates Duncan, Watson and Mercurius from most of those fired, however, is that they're not doctors or nurses, and they don't work in a hospital. They spend their days in a corporate office in suburban Burlington Township, crunching numbers or dealing with billing issues.

CDC Spends $1 Million to Increase Adult Flu Vaccination Rates – Flu Shot to be Mandatory?

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) own statistics, the seasonal flu vaccine for the 2014-2015 season was only 19 percent effective. So why is there a worldwide push for flu vaccination? What are the risks inherent in a flu vaccination and are they worth it? These questions have been deleted, ignored, omitted, and crossed out by most in favor of what appears to be a dose of drug company profit mixed with political agenda.

Boston Nurses Speak Out Against Mandatory Flu Shots

Last month the Massachusetts Nurses Association sued Brigham and Women’s Hospital over a new policy that required nurses to receive the annual flu vaccine as a condition for employment. The nurses were criticized by the medical establishment. Lynn Nicholas, president of the Massachusetts Hospital Association, stated that the nurses were: "putting a pet peeve of theirs above the safety and well-being of the patients they serve, their families, visitors to the hospital, and their colleagues.” When nurses all across the United States and Canada are willing to sacrifice their jobs and careers to avoid the annual flu shot, it is time to sit up and take notice. Trish Powers, representing Brigham nurses in Boston, fired back a comment that The Boston Globe published. It is titled "Brigham nurses know flu vaccine can do harm."