One of those, "Am I being unreasonable?" posts.
I don't normally get the flu shot. I'm healthy and not in an at-risk group, and that's just where I've fallen on that decision. I'm not anti-vacc in general.
I take church services in nursing homes; three different nursing homes, once a month each. I'm there for less than an hour each time.
One of those nursing homes has just informed me I am "required" to have a flu shot.
I am not impressed. I'm not their employee, nor do I have any relationship with them which would give them the right to require such a thing of me. They have not indicated what they'd do if I don't get one, they just seem to assume that I will, but I'd argue that they can't actually prevent me from doing my job there, because that would be infringing on the rights of their residents to practise their religion.
My issue, to be clear, is not with the flu shot. It's with the idea that they can "require" it of a visitor who is there in a particular capacity. But is it unreasonable of me to feel that that's an unreasonable expectation?
The flu season has already been ferocious in Australia this year, with 40,000 laboratory-confirmed cases, and the winter peak is barely even on the horizon yet. In 2017 a quarter of a million people had documented cases of the flu there, and that doesn't reflect the full sum since there were many who had it but were not officially diagnosed to be counted. Flu experts anticipate that 2 million Australians will be afflicted by influenza in 2019, and 4000 will lose their lives due to complications resulting from it. There has been a sustaining surge of cases this summer and autumn, which is why a rampage is anticipated this winter, and public health officials are urgently pleading with everyone who can receive the flu vaccine to please do so promptly. There had been a shortage in some areas, but they've been resupplied. Among those who've already perished from influenza in 2019 is a
teenage girl in SA who had been robustly healthy. She was younger than you, was not in any at-risk group either, and yet her parents buried her. The other victims in SA were between the ages of 62 and 92. Today a teenager in Houston, Texas died from the flu, after it rapidly progressed into pneumonia and sepsis.
Infants, pregnant women, and people with chronic health conditions (such as myself) are at heightened vulnerability to the flu, but the largest demographic to die from it is most typically the elderly. Having the flu puts them at significantly greater risks of complications from it. They are more likely to suffer from a heart attack while battling the flu, to have an agonizing ordeal from pneumonia. Since the flu can manifest differently in older adults, with less perceptible symptoms immediately apparent (many do not suffer from a fever, sore throat, or other typical flags) it's common for their diagnosis, and therefore their treatment, to be delayed. This also makes it exponentially harder to take swift action in an assisted living home to segregate a person with the flu from the rest of the population to prevent an outbreak that could wreak misery and even death.
The flu can also be insidious in kids and younger adults who appear to be blessed with impeccable health. An infected person can be contagious prior to being symptomatic, and remain contagious for days after they feel they've recovered. Therefore you could go to a nursing home, feeling absolutely confident that you are in fine health and posing no danger to those you've come to provide pastoral care to, and yet pass along to them something that could be substantially more distressing to their bodies than to yours. An hour is more than ample time to be destructive. Even a fraction of that is enough time to potentially inflict harm.
To be clear, I don't oppose getting the vaccine. My issue was more that an organisation with which I have no formal relationship felt they had the right to mandate it.
They are mandating it as a condition for you entering their facility, as is their prerogative. Not only is that absolutely reasonable, I'd quantify the failure to implement such a mandate as a dereliction of duty to their residents. Many nursing homes have such policies, as they should.
To me, you getting the flu shot for their benefit is a way of actively practicing loving your neighbor as yourself, the most crucial tenet of Christ's. You are going there to minister, to provide spiritual care, and that should encompass care for their whole being and a desire to do your small part to help protect them since they are not blessed with the vibrancy and mobility you are.
It's honestly dismaying to me that rather than seeing the providence of the nursing homes' actions and fully supporting it, wanting the best for those you are trying to serve, you feel aggrieved. I don't know you, but from having read so many of your posts, I've felt like I did in a way, and you're the last person I expected to write this thread. I still respect you, of course, I'm just taken aback.
You still have the luxury of choice, but need to accept the consequences of that choice. In this case, it would be choosing to be in compliance with the rules for visiting, or not visiting. The residents would not be denied their right to practice their religion because of the nursing home's rules. They still could on their own, with another clergy member who respected the rules. If you choose to not get the flu shot and still want to minister to residents there, you can send them letters or set up some other way to interface without being face-to-face.
