New York abandons swine flu vaccine mandate for health care workers, blames vaccine shortage

Friday, October 23, 2009 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: New York, health news, Natural News

(NaturalNews) New York State Health Commissioner Richard F. Daines announced today that public health workers will no longer be required to receive swine flu vaccinations. The state had been sued by the Public Employees Federation to stop the vaccine mandate, and a state judge had granted the group a temporary restraining order against mandatory vaccine injections (https://www.naturalnews.com/027259_health_flu...). The follow-up hearing was scheduled for October 30 to determine whether the temporary restraining order would be overruled.

The New York Dept. of Health had vowed to fight the restraining order and force all health care workers to be vaccinated, even against their will. Those refusing to be vaccinated faced losing their jobs or being denied pay increases.

The decision to abandon the swine flu vaccine mandate had nothing to do with the debate over the vaccination of health care workers, claims Richard Daines. Instead, he says, it was all caused by the shortage of vaccines. While the CDC had promised states that 120 million doses of swine flu vaccine would be available by the end of October, the reality is that thanks to vaccine production failures, only about 28 million doses will be available (roughly one-fourth the original estimate).

"The CDC acknowledged that New York would only receive approximately 23 percent of its anticipated vaccine supply," Gov. David Paterson said in a story published by CNN. "As a result, we need to be as resourceful as we can with the limited supplies of vaccine currently coming into the state."

The real reason behind the shift

The vaccine shortage has handed New York a convenient way to squirm out of an embarrassing situation that made the state look a lot like a Big Brother medical police state. This decision to back off the vaccination mandate also avoids the loud public protests that were planned by NY health care workers leading up to the Oct. 30 court date. It keeps the health care workers silent and avoids the uncomfortable airing of protests on the evening news.

In effect, it allows New York to back off the mandate while saving face. Just blame the vaccine makers for the shortage!

And yet, technically speaking, their reasoning doesn't hold water if they really believe in the vaccine. Even though swine flu vaccines are in short supply this month, the CDC has informed people that by the end of November, supplies will be so large that vaccines will be available to everyone who wants a shot. Technically, New York could have kept the mandate and just moved it to Dec. 15th.

The vaccine shortage isn't permanent, after all. If New York really believed in mandatory vaccinations of its health care workers, the state could have kept the mandate and just changed the date. So clearly, this decision to reverse itself on the mandate has nothing to do with the vaccine shortage but everything to do with saving face and avoiding looking like complete tyrannical idiots when the public protests ramp up.

Chalk this one up as a temporary victory for New York state health care workers. It's a victory for the People; a victory of common sense over police state tyranny.

New York still doesn't believe in health freedom

But there's a problem with this victory: Because this case isn't going to court right now, New York could reinstate the requirement at any time. Once vaccines are back in full supply, they could just reverse themselves again and mandate vaccines with a short deadline.

You see, since a permanent court decision has never been handed down on this issue, New York hasn't been forced to abandon this idea of requiring swine flu vaccinations for health care workers. So it could conceivably reinstate it at any time, without warning.

So stay on your toes, New Yorkers. Watch out for Big Brother and his needle. The state has not surrendered on this issue, they've just chosen to bide their time and attack again on another day.

Remember this above all else: The State thinks it owns your body and can tell you what to do with it. That position is obvious in the fact that in backing away from these mandatory swine flu vaccines, New York didn't say, "We were wrong to force this upon people, and it should really be an individual decision." No, the state essentially said, "We just ran out of vaccine, so we don't have enough supply to force everyone to take it yet."

It's sort of like the Nazis telling a prison camp full of Jews that the only reason they're still alive is because they ran out of bullets.

Sources for this story include:

CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/23/new...

UPI
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2009/10/23/Ne...