Growing support for health care worker flu vaccine mandate

The Infectious Diseases Society of America released a report on Thursday calling for mandatory influenza vaccination of all health care workers. Here's the press release from the IDSA. An excerpt:

"'It’s our professional duty to first do no harm,' said Andrew T. Pavia, MD, chair of IDSA’s National and Global Public Health Committee. 'Voluntary systems haven’t brought immunization rates up far enough. For the sake of our patients, all health care workers must get a flu shot every year or they must be required to opt out in writing.'"

This position was part of a larger report looking at many aspects of seasonal and pandemic influenza planning and response. There's an important caveat, however. The IDSA recommendation allows for health care workers to decline vaccination, provided they do so in writing, a provision likely motivated by practical reasons rather than sound medical or public health reasoning.

CIDRAP News covered the announcement, quoting our own Art Caplan and David Curry's op-ed in the San Jose Mercury News, which he previously noted here.

Today's Boston Globe picked up on the IDSA position in an editorial today titled "The best shot at fighting the flu." They write:

"One step in getting all health providers at or close to 100 percent is the new policy of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations to require that they at least offer flu shots to all workers. But full compliance will come only through action by Congress and Health and Human Services. A flu shot mandate is one of the most effective steps the nation could take to prepare for a pandemic and, at the same time, reduce the annual toll of the flu virus."