Are flu shots optional or mandatory?

Answer 1

No.

Sometimes.

I believe there are some situations in which specific jobs requiring interaction with the segment of the public who have a high risk for serious complications or even death from the flu may need to have requirements for vaccination of those employees who work with those at risk to prevent the staff from infecting the high risk population with their diseases and to protect the staff. This would most often be a need in health care service employment for certain positions. I believe that the employers in those areas should be responsible for protecting their employees and their patients.

However, that said, there are also people who, through no fault of their own, can not take vaccinations (e.g., Allergies, their own health issues, etc.). Because of this, if there is to be a requirement for vaccination to do the job, there should also be a plan to reassign those employees who can not be vaccinated to other jobs without direct contact with the vulnerable, to protect the employees and to protect the patient population. This is best implemented as a volunteer program with proper education about the pros and cons of vaccination provided to all employees.

Answer 2

It depends on where you live and where you work in some cases.

In the US, there are some states that have enacted laws requiring flu vaccinations for all health care employees who work with patients in healthcare settings; New York, for example. Although it is not a state mandate in all places, there are some hospitals and other healthcare settings that have it as a condition of employment that employees working with patients must be vaccinated or they could be terminated if they refuse. Some of these will try to reassign duties away from patients if there is a medical reason why the employee can't be vaccinated, but they are not required to do so by labor laws in most states. Some places will reassign employees to jobs without patient contact, but that is not an option in all locations or with all employers and they are not required to do so if it is a term of employment. That employer requirement is being challenged in some places, but it is an argument already heard in some courts who held with the employers' positions and public health safety.

Keep in mind that every infant under the age of 6 months relies on everyone else getting vaccinated for their protection since they have immature immune systems that are unable to respond with the proper immunity-producing immune processes when exposed to the virus indirectly or directly. If they get the flu from an un-vaccinated person in their environment, they have a muchhigher risk of death from a simple case of the flu. The same is true with some elderly and immune compromised children and adults, such as those on chemotherapy, after receiving a transplanted organ or with some other diseases, or who take life-sustaining immune suppression medication. In some it is a death sentence for them to catch the flu from you.

The majority of doctors and health care professionals agree as do epidemiologists and public health professionals that everyone older than six months old should be vaccinated unless they are among those who have a contraindication and can not be protected directly. They, too, rely on community immunity. Those people who could, but won't, be vaccinated against the flu and other communicable diseases actually put millions of people and infants at risk of death when they don't.

There are some who have come to believe, after hearing the incorrect information, that the flu vaccinations are harmful to every one who might take one. And some even believe it is all a government conspiracy to secretly put unknown substances in these vaccines to dope their own citizens for whatever reasons. World-wide statistics and data prove that, after decades of use by millions upon millions of people around the world, those are unsupported fears.

There are sensationalist radio talk show hosts, authors and manufacturers of "cures" who rely on this fear of flu vaccines for their livelihoods and spread incorrect safety information about the vaccines. See the related question, "What Does Talk Radio Host Michael Savage Say About Getting The Flu Shot?" as well as the related links for additional information.