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Arroyo speaks on mandatory H1N1 flu shots

Local 436 President Judith Arroyo addressed doctors, nurses and safety professionals April 9 on the issue of mandatory vaccination of health-care workers who are exposed to H1N1 and other infectious diseases.

New York State tried to implement a mandatory vaccination policy in 2009 but was stopped by a court ruling in a case initiated by public employee unions.

Many members of Local 436, the United Federation of Nurses & Epidemiologists, have been working on the frontlines of the fight against the pandemic.

Arroyo spoke at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine during a conference entitled “From Fear to Flu: H1N1, Health Care Workers and Workplace Risk.”

On a panel with Arroyo were Dr. John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Arroyo pointed out that in the 1950s, any hospital with the high rates of acquired infections that hospitals have now would have been forced to shut down.

But nowadays, she said, “any commissioner of health who tried to shut down a hospital would be sent packing. There’s a great deal of politics involved.” And officials must consider the political dimension as they set public health policies, such as mandatory vaccinations for health-care workers.