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 Indiana Hospital Fires Nurses Refusing Flu Shots
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Machi4velli
SFN Regular

USA
854 Posts

Posted - 01/02/2013 :  14:48:27  Show Profile Send Machi4velli a Private Message  Reply with Quote
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2255814/Hospital-fires-EIGHT-veteran-nurses-refused-flu-shot-religious-reasons.html

Flu shots seem like a sort of perfect storm for misunderstanding by the uncritical thinker:

1. They don't guarantee of not getting the flu if you get the shot
2. They have no effect on non-flu illnesses

Whether it's the rarer case of flu that slipped through or people mistake other illnesses for the flu, the result is the same: both allows people to say "I got the shot and still got sick!"

3. Infection isn't guaranteed without the shot

This allows "I didn't even get a flu shot and still didn't get the flu!"

4. Anecdotal thinking is pretty extreme on this topic

The anecdote counter to the "expected" result of protection gets way more weight than it should.

5. Wakefield's bad study
6. Legitimate studies challenging the efficacy of flu vaccines (very rarely do they actually say they don't work, just that they don't work as well as they are claimed to work)

"Even the scientists don't agree!"

7. It contains "toxins"
8. Religious objections

I suspect the argument that it's a "toxin" or contains some harmful substances is the source of religion-justified confirmation bias more than there exist legitimate religious objections (whatever this means). Take these nurses for example, they obviously think some medicines are okay and effective and morally okay, yet for "religious reasons" isolate vaccines (or maybe just the flu vaccine) as the thing they oppose.

"Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people."
-Giordano Bruno

"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge."
-Stephen Hawking

"Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable"
-Albert Camus

Edited by - Machi4velli on 01/02/2013 14:48:44

Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend

Sweden
9688 Posts

Posted - 01/02/2013 :  16:33:33   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Dr. Mabuse an ICQ Message Send Dr. Mabuse a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Likey likey. Shared on Facebook too.

The morons are jeopardising the health of the people they care for by refusing the flu-shot. One of them worked in oncology. That woman, if any, should understand the reasons for having the shot. She needs a new career.

Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
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The Rat
SFN Regular

Canada
1370 Posts

Posted - 01/02/2013 :  19:30:02   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit The Rat's Homepage Send The Rat a Private Message  Reply with Quote

It's a job requirement as far as I know, so you do your job. Other choices are to quit or get fired. They took option #2. You can have all the religious beliefs you want, but when you get to work they stay outside until you leave.


Bailey's second law; There is no relationship between the three virtues of intelligence, education, and wisdom.

You fiend! Never have I encountered such corrupt and foul-minded perversity! Have you ever considered a career in the Church? - The Bishop of Bath and Wells, Blackadder II

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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie

USA
4826 Posts

Posted - 01/03/2013 :  06:55:35   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Valiant Dancer's Homepage Send Valiant Dancer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by The Rat


It's a job requirement as far as I know, so you do your job. Other choices are to quit or get fired. They took option #2. You can have all the religious beliefs you want, but when you get to work they stay outside until you leave.




It is. And a requirement that will cost you your job. The flu shot was required for all personell having direct contact with patients since at least 1997. Only valid reason for refusal was an allergy to eggs. (medical, not spiritual mumbo-jumbo)

It's like a welder refusing to wear a welder's mask due to religious reasons. No one hires that guy, either.

Only the welder doesn't have the capability of carrying diseases to immunocompramised patients and kill them with it.

Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils

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Machi4velli
SFN Regular

USA
854 Posts

Posted - 01/03/2013 :  13:48:29   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Machi4velli a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Didn't the article say this hospital just imposed the rule this year?

I don't know what else you can do but fire them, you can't put vulnerable hospital patients at greater risk of harm. I am interested in how courts decide what criteria a practice must meet to trump religious objections though.

"Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people."
-Giordano Bruno

"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge."
-Stephen Hawking

"Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable"
-Albert Camus
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