Wyckoff Heights Medical Center’s ER entrance on Stanhope Street. — Photo by Kevin Armento
Roughly 200 people showed up at the state Capitol in Albany Tuesday to protest the recent state regulation mandating H1N1/Swine flu vaccinations for health care professionals. The Department of Health’s issuance in August came on the heels of the flu’s quicker-than-normal spread this summer, and on the eve of the upcoming flu season.
While a strong majority of cases have remained mild, H1N1 was officially declared a pandemic in June, and has subsequently been the cause of 804 deaths in the U.S.
Swine flu has caused particular fear in the outer boroughs of New York. Locally, elementary schools in Bushwick and Fresh Meadows were forced to close for multiple days in April and May, after several dozen cases of the rapid-spreading virus were reported. In an effort to stem this spread and protect health care workers, the Department of Health made New York the first state to set such a mandate for vaccination, though others are now considering similar action.
Critics, and the protesters at Albany, are citing various potential dangers of the vaccine, risks that are particularly troublesome to women (even more so to those pregnant). More broadly, though, anger seems to stem from what is being perceived as an infringement on choice, an issue health care workers are claiming is one of workers’ rights.
Two doctors at Wyckoff Heights hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that while there are reasonable grounds to be fearful, or even angry (the vaccine has not been tested nearly as thoroughly as the one for standard seasonal influenza), they mostly downplayed the sense of outrage on display in Albany, and said they themselves will have no problem receiving the vaccination.
They referred to the 1976 flu vaccine – as have many of those opposed to the regulation – which was linked to nerve-damaging disorders, and was in some cases fatal, but said this new vaccination is not in any way similar.
Health care workers are required to be vaccinated by November 30.
Mario October 1st, 2009 at 5:10 pm
36,000 *seasonal* flu deaths per year:
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/us_flu-related_deaths.htm
pamarama October 7th, 2009 at 10:08 am
H1N1 was created by the government to help big pharma get even richer. this kind of thing scares the hell out of me. the agents in the vaccine are 100 times more harmful than actually getting swine flu, such a squalene, which causes MS along with a bevy of other pleasurable, permamnent conditions.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_19045.cfm
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_18846.cfm
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_19097.cfm
all this nonsense about the vaccine, and NO ONE’s even taking a second look at the POOR F*CKING PIGS… wonder what the Pork Association paid for that. disgusting.