A daycare worker employed by Northeast Health in Albany New York was shocked to be told by her boss that she would be fired if she refused to take a seasonal swine flu shot on the spot. Similar stories have been pouring in to us from all over the country as fears that the upcoming H1N1 shot will also be mandatory continue to grow.
The case emphasizes why President Obama’s claim that the swine flu shot will be voluntary is completely deceptive and misleading. Americans across the country, even those not directly connected with health care work, are being ordered to take the mandated seasonal and swine flu shots or lose their jobs.
The story of what happened to the daycare worker, who would like to go by the pseudonym “Clare,” was sent to us by her sister who also provided Clare’s real name and the full name of the facility she is employed with.
Clare works in a daycare center which is affiliated with the local hospital but in a completely separate building. It was reported earlier this month that all hospital workers in the entire region would be forced to take the seasonal flu shot or lose their jobs and that the vaccine would become a condition of employment.
“On the Tuesday morning following the Labor Day weekend (Sept 8th), the director of the daycare of Northeast Health announced to employees on the spot (without a meeting, memo or discussion) that everyone had to go get a flu shot immediately and staff would be rotated so that everyone would be inoculated by the end of the day,” writes Clare’s sister.
“Clare said “I don’t get flu shots” and was told “well then you’ll be fired.”
The director told Clare that the H1N1 shot would also be mandated in the same way when it becomes available. When Clare warned the director that the swine flu shot contained mercury, squalene and other dangerous additives, the director told her that regardless of her objections, if she refused to be vaccinated she would be suspended from November 13th and then formally fired on November 30th.
“Clare asked how she can be fired for something that was not a condition of her employment when she was hired? She was told it was not Northeast Health’s policy, it was the director of the New York State Department of Health who made the shot mandatory,” writes her sister.
However, according to the NYSDOH decree for mandatory vaccinations, exemptions exist for “personnel who have a medical contraindication and for workers, such as those offsite, who would have no contact with patients and only incidental contact with direct-care staff.” Clare clearly falls into this category as she works in a separate building from the hospital and has no direct regular contact with hospital workers.
Clare demanded answers to the following questions, none of which have been addressed by the daycare director.
1. The regular seasonal flu hasn’t even hit so how will this first mandated shot provide any immunity when it is clearly the vaccine from last year?
2. When the H1N1 is mandated – as I believe it will be – and if I did get the shot to save my job and should I have one of the adverse reactions that the CDC has predicted, will I be covered under Workers Comp since the action that caused the injury was job related? (The cost of which will fall on the employer NOT the State of New York.)
3. Should I refuse the shot will I be eligible for Unemployment Compensation since I did nothing to warrant being terminated?
4. Malpractice insurance providers in Australia are refusing to extend coverage to their clients who give the shot; will this be the case in New York?
5. Are insurance companies going to cover subscribers who fall ill as a result of the H1N1 inoculations that were mandated by the NYS Department of Health?
After concerned parents started to ask Clare why she was leaving, it some became apparent that the director had immediately produced a letter and circulated it around the daycare, claiming that Clare was leaving for “personal reasons,” without mentioning the real reason, that she refused to take the vaccine.
Clare took the letter to the head of human resources but was told that, “the New York State Labor Department would probably be instructed to side with the Department of Health and determine that you were fired for not following an order from your employer and not approve Unemployment Compensation. The meeting ended with him stating that it was the NYS Department of Health’s call and not Northeast Health and there was no way around it.”
“Not only have my sister’s rights as an employee been violated but her employer’s justification for terminating her is based on a falsehood on top of which she may be prevented from receiving Unemployment Insurance for this wrongful termination,” writes Clare’s sister.
As an addendum, Clare’s sister informs us that one of the daycare teachers who did take the seasonal flu shot on September 8th suffered a reaction less than a week later. Clare’s sister takes up the story;
“It began with symptoms similar to Pink Eye on her left side and then her eye swelled; the swelling then spread further down her check and then into her neck where a mass formed. This 30 year old mother of three has been unable to work since the symptoms in her eye surfaced, around the 14th. My sister Clare asked school officials if her ill coworker would be covered by Workers Comp and was told they believe she would be. The co-worker has been on antibiotics that don’t seem to be working. Her doctor told her if the RX doesn’t clear it up the “infection(?)” soon they’ll have to take more drastic action. My sister was told by her ill co worker: “Clare you were right to say no to the shot, the job isn’t worth it, I should never have gotten the shot.”
Clare is now facing unemployment as a result of refusing to take the seasonal flu vaccine, not to mention the H1N1 shot. Thousands of other health workers are now in a similar position whereby they will be forced to take the dangerous swine flu shot or be fired over the course of the next few weeks. Polls indicate that at least a third of nurses and health workers will refuse to take the vaccine and another third are still unsure. If even as little as a quarter of health care professionals stand up in unison and refuse to be intimidated into taking the shot, authorities will probably have to back off and make the shot voluntary.
However, Clare’s deeper concern is that another primary target of the first round of swine flu vaccinations, young children, will be even more vulnerable to having the shot forced upon them with no warning or notice whatsoever.
“My sister has three children in public school and is extremely concerned that the head of the New York State Department of Health, Dr. Richard Daines, will next decree the shots are mandatory for all school children,” writes Clare’s sister.
“She is prepared to home school them but is scared to death that in the mean time an UNANNOUNCED flu shot clinic will be sprung on school districts some morning to get around parental objections to having their children vaccinated. She has told her children in no uncertain terms are they to accept the shot(s) but realizes the Hobson’s choice they too may soon face and that they are so much less prepared than she to fight this unconstitutional authority.”
