OntheWilderSide

(excerpt from) Newsday
Health care workers protest flu-vaccination order
October 11, 2009

Health care providers from throughout Long Island gathered on the lawn of Suffolk County’s Health Department Saturday in a second day of protests against the state’s mandatory flu-vaccination order.

Carrying picket signs in Hauppauge, the group numbering about 60 quietly talked among themselves as passing drivers honked in support. Protesters, who were from a number of medical facilities held a similar rally Friday in Mineola.

Certain health care personnel — those in hospitals and a few other venues — must undergo vaccination for seasonal and swine flu or risk losing their jobs.

Demonstrators insisted the swine flu vaccine is unsafe…

Many protesters said they’re angry over what they feel is a violation of their civil rights — and a loss of the right to choose. The Constitution Party distributed pamphlets at the rally urging smaller government.

“I am not opposed to immunization, I am opposed to mandating both of them [seasonal and swine flu vaccinations],” said registered nurse Vickie Thompson who works at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center in East Patchogue. Thompson said she’s willing to lose her job…

The controversial regulation, approved in August, made New York the only state mandating flu vaccination. However, other states are considering similar measures, and Hospital Corporation of America, the country’s largest hospital chain, is requiring its 183,000 employees in 20 states to be vaccinated for both seasonal and H1N1…

…a demonstrator carried a placard labeling the pandemic an illusion; others talked about vaccine-triggered neurological injury.

“I really love my job, my boss and my co-workers,” said Loriann Reardon, a nursing assistant at Stony Brook University Medical Center. But she, too, said she is mulling the prospects of quitting…

Penalty: Workers who flout the requirement face reassignment to non-clinical positions or loss of their positions. Deadline to comply is Nov. 30.

Related post with a lot of research and links at wilderside: here.

Filed under: activism, local, long island, Long Island Politics, New York State Politics, News, politics, progressive politics, US Politics Tagged: | flu vaccine, H1N1, health care, mandatory vaccines, nurses, Suffolk County, swine flu