No Health Care Worker Should Be Forced To Protect Patients – A Side Trip To Stupid

Big brouhaha about the Seasonal and Swine Flu vaccines and mandating by some states or even hospitals that health care professionals be required to get them to continue their employment. Some, admittedly not all, health care workers are all in a bother about “big brother” intruding upon their rights. This group of health care workers believes that the decision to get or not get these flu shots should be left up to them, and that no one has the right to force this requirement upon them.

Now who among us would not agree that the government or an employer should not and does not have the right to impose on individual citizens an obligation to subject their own beings to a medical procedure? This is America! We are all endowed with basic rights and individual freedoms as part of the very fabric of our system of government. And certainly we would not allow the government or a company employing our citizens to selectively designate that particular groups of people must conform to dictates and directives which are not equally and fairly applied to all citizens. There are no circumstances that justify such outrageous, officious and odious interference in anyone’s life that American’s would tolerate.

Well, yes; there are a few actually. And these circumstances and conditions tend to stem from the same principles that all Americans hold to dear to their love of Freedom. We in fact established our system of government to insure that there is justice, provide for our common defense, and promote the general welfare. In creating our democratic way of life, we have acknowledged that there are times and situations which require individuals to adhere to the laws and policies that are defined to deliver to us our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In some non-health care arenas we accept that the government has the right to draft citizens into the military if it becomes necessary. The fact that the draft is not used today does not invalidate the ability and legitimacy of the government exercising its right to do so. And in the case of the draft, the government can selectively apply it to a sub-set of the citizenry. They may have to be careful and prudent when they do this, but do it they can.

How about taxation? Hasn’t the government established its right to collect money from the citizenry? The rare and occasional individual who persists in fighting that the government doesn’t have this right, can occupy themselves with the legal windmills; but at the end of the day, the windmills will win. And as most of us would acknowledge, we do all benefit from some of the tax dollars we surrender. We may not like everything, but if we lost everything that the government has undertaken in either support of our defense or welfare; I suspect that we might all be standing in line to admit the foolishness of our decision and offer to provide a little more than we currently do, just to get it all back. And with regard to justice, I don’t think many of us would believe that we would be better off if we were not compelled to follow the laws that we have established to protect and define our liberties.

In considering health care, there are already laws that allow the government to mandate vaccinations and other more stringent procedures when the health of the population is at risk. We can quarantine and confine individuals when they pose a threat to the public. We can prohibit treatments and practices that are deemed unsafe and unhealthy to the public. And we can even require vaccinations in such circumstances. If you join the military, you are obligated to be vaccinated for a wide variety of illnesses or conditions. And if you want to says, “Yes, but the military is voluntary so you have a choice.”, I want to remind you that when it is a drafted military, you don’t get to choose.

The health care workers who don’t want to be forced to get vaccinated, whether it’s just because they don’t like the government telling them to do it or, they don’t want to be vaccinated for their own reasons; I agree they should not be forced to. I also believe that they should not be allowed to place the public at risk in a health care service arena. So they can quit, a very individual and free decision that they can make. But their decision to not be vaccinated also encroaches upon my right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; on my expectation of being properly defended by the government and having my welfare secured.

The real issue here is whether there is a risk to the society and is it at a sufficiently high enough level to have the government or medical institution take the proactive action to declare that you cannot provide health care services unless you are vaccinated.