Vaccine Exemption Forms
Jan 5, 2013
Walgreens Giving Away Free Flu Shots: Death in a Dart!
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Goshen Hospital Employees Fired After Refusing Mandatory Flu Shot
Via: Huffingtonpost
The age-old debate between personal liberty and public responsibility has found contentious new participants: health care workers. The debate recently reached a fever pitch after eight employees at Indiana University Health Goshen Hospital in Goshen, Ind., were fired in mid-December for refusing mandatory flu shots. Goshen Hospital had implemented the vaccination policy in September, reports WSBT, as part of a broader effort to ensure patient safety. “As a hospital and health system, our top priority is and should be patient safety, and we know that hospitalized people with compromised immune systems are at a greater risk for illness and death from the flu,” explained hospital spokeswoman Melanie McDonald to the Elkhart Truth. “The flu has the highest death rate of any vaccine preventable disease, and it would be irresponsible from our perspective for health care providers to ignore that.” But that isn't how eight of the hospital's employees saw it, most of whom objected to the vaccinations on religious grounds.
"God gave us a body," Ethel Hoover, a Mennonite nurse who had worked at Goshen Hospital for 22 years before she was fired, said to WNDU. "He gave us, He made our body uniquely that we can -- if we live a healthful life -- that our chances of being able to fight it off with our own immune system is very likely." Another nurse, Joyce Gingerich, told WSBT, "I knew right away I would have to walk away from getting the shot. I have a personal conviction that I don’t want to have one in my body.” According to UPI, a total of 26 employees filed for an exemption from the mandatory flu vaccination. Eleven appeals were granted along religious lines, and several more employees were exempted because they faced the possibility of a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine.
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CDC Pertussis: Outbreaks 2012
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Pertussis is an endemic (common) disease in the United States, with peaks in disease every 3 to 5 years and frequent outbreaks. In 2010, 27,550 cases of pertussis were reported — and many more cases go unreported. The primary goal of pertussis outbreak control efforts is to decrease morbidity (amount of disease) and mortality (death) among infants; a secondary goal is to decrease morbidity among persons of all ages.
Pertussis outbreaks can be difficult to identify and manage. Other respiratory pathogens often cause clinical symptoms similar to pertussis, and co-circulation with other pathogens (bacterial and viral) does occur. In order to respond appropriately (e.g., provide appropriate antibiotic prophylaxis), it is important to confirm that Bordetella pertussis is circulating in the outbreak setting and to determine whether other pathogens are contributing to the outbreak. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests vary in specificity, so obtaining culture confirmation of pertussis for at least one suspicious case is recommended any time there is suspicion of a pertussis outbreak.
Pseudo outbreaks of pertussis have resulted because of false positive test results with PCR. This underscores the importance of recognizing clinical signs and symptoms and practicing careful laboratory testing.
Institutional outbreaks of pertussis are common. Outbreaks at middle and high schools can occur as protection from childhood vaccines fades. In school outbreaks, prophylaxis is recommended for close classroom and team contacts — and the pertussis booster vaccine (Tdap) depending on age. Pertussis outbreaks in hospitals and other clinical settings can put infants and other patients at risk.
Vaccine Exemption Forms
Jan 3, 2013
Whooping Cough Epidemic Declared in Vermont
Via: UsaToday
A whooping cough epidemic is affecting Vermont, according to the Vermont Department of Health, which is calling on all adults 19 and older to get vaccinated. As of last week, 522 cases of pertussis (as whooping cough is also known) had been reported statewide, Commissioner Harry Chen told a news conference Thursday. That's more than 10 times the usual number for this time of year. More cases are being reported daily, state epidemiologist Patsy Kelso said. About 90 percent of Vermont children have been vaccinated, Kelso said, but the immunization rate for adults is much lower, probably in the neighborhood of 10 percent. And adults are believed to be primarily responsible for spreading the disease, largely via coughing and sneezing.
Free clinics to administer the vaccine to adults will be open at regional health department offices Wednesday, Chen said. The adult booster, called Tdap, has only been available in Vermont since 2006, so most people probably have not received it. Tdap also immunizes against tetanus and diphtheria. Neither TDap nor the child version of the vaccine, DTaP, is foolproof. A majority of the 522 cases are in vaccinated children, Kelso said, adding that the effectiveness fades as years pass. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, DTaP vaccines are 80 percent to 90 percent effective, and "about seven of 10 kids are fully protected five years after getting their last dose." Children typically receive five doses of DTaP between the age of 2 months and 6 years.
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Mom Refuses Vaccine Police Seize Newborn
The state has granted powers to individuals though the use of titles, uniforms and badges in this instance both ‘social worker’ and ‘police officer’ are the titles used to seize custody of Jodi Ferris’s newborn child after she questioned the hospitals ‘safety plan’. Once in the custody of the state the baby was injected with a Hepatitis B vaccination and the mother was evicted from the hospital forced to stay in the parking lot being allowed only to return every three hours to breast feed her newborn daughter. The next morning the court system determined this was a violation of Constitutional laws and the baby was immediately returned to the custody of her parents with no mention of the possible damage done to her immune system after receiving this toxic concoction. With the help of the Home Schooling Legal Defense Association {HSLDA} the Ferris’s have filed a civil rights lawsuit on grounds that their 4th and 14th amendments had been violated. This lawsuit has been making its way through the court systems and earlier this month a judge ruled in favor of the Ferris’s claims and the case will now proceed to trial.
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Hospital Fires Veteran Nurses Who Refused the Flu Shot
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| Stop Mandatory Vaccinations |
An Indiana hospital has fired eight employees, many of them veteran nurses, because they refused to take the flu vaccine. IU Health Goshen is just the latest hospital to force its employees to receive the jab and fire or discipline the ones who object. At least four of the nurses who was terminated tried to appeal the vaccine on religious grounds with the help of a lawyer. The hospital rejected their arguments and fired them anyway.The Elkhart Truth reports that the hospital informed its staff in early September that vaccinations would be mandatory for all employees. The hospital said it was following guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Medical Association, which both recommend mandatory vaccinations for employees.'As a hospital and health system, our top priority is and should be patient safety, and we know that hospitalized people with compromised immune systems are at a greater risk for illness and death from the flu,' hospital spokeswoman Melanie McDonald told the newspaper.
'The flu has the highest death rate of any vaccine preventable disease, and it would be irresponsible from our perspective for health care providers to ignore that.'
The nurses, though, say the mandate tramples on their own deeply-held religious beliefs.
'I feel like in my personal faith walk, I have felt instructed not to get a flu vaccination, but it’s also the whole matter of the right to choose what I put in my body and what I feel God wants me to put in versus someone mandating what I put in,' Joyce Gingerich told the Truth. Ms Gingerich, an oncology nurse who worked at the hospital in Goshen for 25 years, said she didn't want to leave her patients or her job - but she said she couldn't compromise her religious beliefs. Sue Schrock, a hospice nurse, said she has not had a flu vaccine for 30 years as a result of a choice she made because of her Christian faith. She said compromising that position was unthinkable.
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Jan 2, 2013
Colorado Hospitals Mandating the Flu Shot or Employees get Fired
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| Choice should be mandatory |
Across Colorado, hospitals are demanding all employees get flu shots or be fired. The choice pits the safety of sick patients who could die from a hospital-acquired case of influenza, against the rights of employees to refuse a shot. Nationally, flu contributes to anywhere from 3,000 to 49,000 deaths a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is especially dangerous to already frail hospital patients.
In Colorado, at least 20 hospital employees in Colorado have lost their jobs since the beginning of flu season. It’s difficult to get an accurate count because most hospitals will not share personnel records. A Facebook page called “Colorado Healthcare Workers Against Forced Vaccination” has some 250 members, including a rehabilitation therapist, a chiropractor, a medical physicist and clerical staff. One wrote, “I was suspended, not actually fired, until the end of the ‘flu season,’ but the result is the same, no work, no paycheck.” Still, the hospitals’ requirements this season have resulted in tens of thousands of their staffers getting flu shots, far more than in previous years.
The wave of required vaccinations was set off after the state Board of Health reported that only 60 percent of Colorado health workers had flu vaccinations. Educating health care staff about the need for flu shots has not been working, said state public health director Joni Reynolds. In February the board adopted new requirements, specifying that 60 percent of healthcare workers in the state receive flu shots by the end of this year. That requirement will rise to 90 percent by 2014. However, many hospitals are insisting that 100 percent of their employees get the flu shot immediately. For most staffers, that means either obtaining the vaccination or getting an exemption for medical or religious reasons, and instead agreeing to wear a mask at work for months during the winter flu season at a time.
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Did Merck's Gardasil Vaccine Kill a 3 Year-Old Toddler?
Via: Morphcity
In June 2012 Chace Topperwein, an adorable 3 year-old boy from New Zealand, lost his battle with a rare and aggressive form of cancer. Chace was accidentally given Merck's Gardasil HPV vaccine that is intended to prevent cervical cancer from genital wart infection, when he was 6 weeks old. A nurse mistakenly used the wrong syringe filled with Gardasil when she had meant to give the baby a meningitis vaccine. Chace was diagnosed with myeloid leukemia at age 2 and died just last month. His devastated parents suspected that the Gardasil vaccine was to blame for his illness.Merck does not list leukemia as a possible side effect of the Gardasil vaccine. However, Merck has failed to test its vaccine for links to cancer.
Vaccine Exemption Forms
In June 2012 Chace Topperwein, an adorable 3 year-old boy from New Zealand, lost his battle with a rare and aggressive form of cancer. Chace was accidentally given Merck's Gardasil HPV vaccine that is intended to prevent cervical cancer from genital wart infection, when he was 6 weeks old. A nurse mistakenly used the wrong syringe filled with Gardasil when she had meant to give the baby a meningitis vaccine. Chace was diagnosed with myeloid leukemia at age 2 and died just last month. His devastated parents suspected that the Gardasil vaccine was to blame for his illness.Merck does not list leukemia as a possible side effect of the Gardasil vaccine. However, Merck has failed to test its vaccine for links to cancer.
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Sindh Government Orders Mandatory Measles Vaccination
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| State mandated torture |
Sindh Health Minister Dr Saghir Ahmed during his visit to the districts affected by measles virus on Monday ordered that all children aged between nine months and 10 years should be given anti-measles vaccination.
The minister suspended Shikarpur Health EDO Dr Qazi Khursheed, Larkana and Sukkur district health officers and Salehpat health town officer for negligence in their professional responsibilities. The health minister, who had been on an extensive visit to the affected areas during the last few days, had asked the concerned officials to ensure availability of doctors and paramedics at government hospitals around the clock.
The minister also met parents of measles-affected children and urged them to notify the symptoms of the ailment to other people in their localities so that all parents get their children vaccinated as soon as possible.
He also urged officials of Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) to ensure that children and their parents are adequately facilitated “The anti-measles campaign currently undergoing in Sukkur, Khairpur, Larkana, Kambar, Kashmore and Jacobabad will be fool-proof,” he said. All the 395 sites and 668 mobile teams constituted to run the campaign in the affected districts had been ordered to report to their seniors on day-to-day basis regarding developments.
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Jan 1, 2013
Goshen Hospital Employees Fired for Refusing Flu Shot
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| More Mandated Torture |
Sue Schrock’s personal and religious beliefs are strong. “They are biblical and they are God-led and they are who I am,” she said. Ultimately, those beliefs that she should be able to control what goes into her own body led the hospice nurse and long-time Goshen Hospital employee to not get a flu shot – a vaccination she says she hasn’t had in about 30 years. It also cost Schrock her job. “I just feel like it’s a toxin I don’t want in my body. There are side effects with it. There are no guarantees that it’s even going to protect you,” she said. “I prefer the natural route of healing, and we take vitamins, and we don't overdo it – just natural vitamins.” Schrock is one of six employees Goshen Hospital fired in December after IU Health made the flu shot mandatory at all of its campuses for the first time in September. Two other employees quit because they didn’t want the shot, said hospital spokeswoman Melanie McDonald.Oncology nurse Joyce Gingerich, who has worked at the hospital off and on since 1986, fought the same battle for similar reasons.
“I knew right away I would have to walk away from getting the shot,” she said. “I have a personal conviction that I don’t want to have one in my body.” Gingerich also added that aside from her religious beliefs, she feels the need to fight for the right to have personal choices. Schrock and Gingerich are two of 26 Goshen Hospital employees who filed appeals with the hospital in October, asking not to get the vaccine for religious reasons. The two women and one other nurse even hired a North Carolina vaccine rights lawyer who filed a second appeal in November. The hospital denied both. “The health and safety of our patients is top priority, it has to be,” said McDonald. “People are entrusted to us to make sure they get healthy.” A committee reviewed each religious appeal, according to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guidelines, she added.
“If it were religious beliefs as defined by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, they would not have been terminated. Sometimes there can be a little bit of grey area, and people who have very personally held beliefs will present those as religious opportunities for exemption,” McDonald said. Out of the 26 religious appeals, the committee granted 11 exemptions, allowing those employees were allowed to keep their jobs without receiving a flu vaccination, she added. Some other employees were also exempted because of allergies to the shot.
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Parents of Unvaccinated Children not Allowed to be Foster Parents
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A group of parents barred from adopting or fostering kids in Arizona’s child-welfare system because they won’t vaccinate their own children are pushing for changes in state law. Susann Van Tienderen and Gina Apilado claim the state violates its own rules by refusing to consider potential foster families whose biological children have medical exemptions from immunization rules. Both women’s families want to adopt children from Arizona foster care. Two state lawmakers — Sen. Nancy Barto and Rep. Debbie Lesko — met this month with officials from the state Department of Economic Security, which oversees foster-care licensing. They said they’re drafting companion bills that would eliminate the vaccination requirement as a licensing condition to become a foster parent. The lawmakers plan to introduce the bills during the upcoming session, which begins Jan. 14. Department of Economic Security officials said the rules are meant to protect foster children who may not be completely immunized, The Arizona Republic reported.Because the department denies licenses to families whose children aren’t immunized, private agencies hired by the state to train and license foster parents typically discourage families from continuing once they learn their biological children aren’t fully vaccinated.
The department said the immunization requirement protects children who have been removed from their homes because of suspected abuse or neglect and who may not be fully vaccinated. That includes newborns who have been removed from their parents in the hospital and aren’t old enough to have had any shots. Van Tienderen and Apilado said they believe many potential foster families are being turned away each year because of the vaccination issue. “These agencies are still turning good families away. It’s unacceptable,” said Apilado, adding that her oldest daughter had a severe reaction to immunizations as a baby. Arizona has a shortage of foster homes, with families closing their doors faster than new homes can become licensed. As a result, a growing number of children are living in crisis shelters and group homes. As of October, nearly 2,000 of Arizona’s 14,500 foster children were in group homes or shelters.It’s not clear how often the vaccination issue comes up in foster care and adoption situations.
Marcia Reck, director of Arizona Adoption and Foster Care, said she could recall only three or four families in the past five years who decided not to continue with foster-care applications because it would require their own children to be immunized. State officials said they are drawing up a new policy expected to be released next month to clarify that parents with “medical documentation” about their unimmunized children can be licensed to foster and adopt, and to ensure that the foster children they bring into their homes have had all their shots.
Vaccine Exemption Forms