Vaccination or Termination: The Issue of Mandatory Influenza Vaccinations for Healthcare Workers
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Emily DeYoung
Abstract
Today, arguably the most common assertion against mandatory vaccinations comes from parents using the Due Process Clause to challenge mandatory vaccinations, claiming the mandates violate their children’s substantive due process rights. Ordinarily, schools allow certain exemptions to tenderly avoid violating the children’s constitutional rights. Many children may have parents advocating for their exemption from these vaccinations, but what about those who have less sway in an argument for exemption? What is at stake for children is their admission into a specific school, and even if they are denied admittance, their parents always have the option to homeschool them if they truly feel so passionately against mandatory vaccinations. However, a healthcare worker who is seeking employment, or who is already employed, does not have as much sway or alternatives when it comes to opposing a mandatory immunization policy. Employers have begun implementing mandatory influenza immunization programs, but even the employers who grant accommodations exempting certain healthcare employees impose some form of additional infection-control practice (e.g. requiring exempt healthcare workers to wear facemasks while on duty, wear different color badges, or placing them in alternative positions during flu season). These mandatory influenza immunization programs, and the alternatives required if healthcare workers acquire exemptions, strike a critical balance between the workers’ constitutional rights and the overarching public safety issues.
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- Introduction to Volume X
- Research Articles
- Do We Need Religious and Philosophical Exemptions to Vaccination?
- Vaccination or Termination: The Issue of Mandatory Influenza Vaccinations for Healthcare Workers
- Fields of Danger: The Looming Threat of Agroterrorism on the United States’ Agriculture
- Forgiveness or Permission: How May the United States Government Conduct Experiments on the Public or in Public?
- Where is the Line? an Examination of the History of Tuberculosis Quarantine and the Due Process Issues that Arise
- The Mechanisms Behind the United Nations Secretary-General’s Mechanism – an Examination of the History and Application of the Fact-Finding Mechanism to the Alleged Chemical Attacks in Syria
- IS and Bioweapons: How Can the BWC Be Used to Intercede When a Non-Signator IS Suspected of Bioweapon Creation?
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- Introduction to Volume X
- Research Articles
- Do We Need Religious and Philosophical Exemptions to Vaccination?
- Vaccination or Termination: The Issue of Mandatory Influenza Vaccinations for Healthcare Workers
- Fields of Danger: The Looming Threat of Agroterrorism on the United States’ Agriculture
- Forgiveness or Permission: How May the United States Government Conduct Experiments on the Public or in Public?
- Where is the Line? an Examination of the History of Tuberculosis Quarantine and the Due Process Issues that Arise
- The Mechanisms Behind the United Nations Secretary-General’s Mechanism – an Examination of the History and Application of the Fact-Finding Mechanism to the Alleged Chemical Attacks in Syria
- IS and Bioweapons: How Can the BWC Be Used to Intercede When a Non-Signator IS Suspected of Bioweapon Creation?
