Debate on Mandatory Flu Vaccination

Running head: DEBATE ON MANDATORY FLU VACCINATION
Debate on Mandatory Flu Vaccination
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1DEBATE ON MANDATORY FLU VACCINATION
Introduction
Influenza virus is responsible for the common flue disease that is an infectious one.
Vaccination is the most convenient way of combatting against the virus. A vaccine can reduce
the chances of influenza disease by almost 90%. However that is dependent on various factors.
The centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory
Committee (HICPAC), the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) suggest that,
all the health care professionals in US should be vaccinated against the virus every year.
However, the strategy of mandatory vaccination is still a matter of argument as this pits the
patient safety, health care professionals and also hampers the employee relations. The health care
administrators are planning to execute the mandatory influenza vaccination policy.
Discussion
According to a report of US News (2013) it was seen that, there are many other risk
factors with which Americans are fighting every day. The vaccination of the health care
professionals is only due to protect the patients from infection. One of the most important cause
of this controversy is that, people are unable to understand the risks of influenza infections. In
US, almost 5-20% of total population is affected by this infection and the rate is about 3000-
50,000 per year. Moreover, the mortality rate is higher than that of the mortality rate of AIDS.
Hospitals are very vulnerable place for those who are older and already very sick. That is the
reason the mandatory vaccination of the health care personnel is no-brainer. From the editorial of
Cheng & Worth (2014), it is seen that, they strongly recommend the vaccination to protect the
patients from influenza. However, the vaccination is neither enough nor necessary to prevent flu
and other respiratory virus infection among the patients. The influenza vaccine is not capable to
give complete protection and so that it can be said that mandatory vaccination is not necessary.