Nurses losing Faith In Vaccines

Nurses Are Losing Faith In Vaccines, Becoming Distrustful of Health Authorities

April 23, 2012 

Dave Mihalovic
Prevent Disease

It’s music to my ears and a symphony to my soul. Nurses may finally be coming around and grasping the gravity of how vaccines are damaging our bodies. A study in Vaccine shows that nurses trust in health authorities and vaccination is at an all time low following the H1N1 flu pandemic that was ultimately proven to be a hoax.

The 2009 H1N1 pandemic fraud perpetrated by health authorities worldwide seems to have backfired on those orchestrating the plot. Instead of reinforcing the “claimed” effectiveness of vaccination, it only created more doubt even within conventional medical practitioners themselves.

The study in Vaccine titled “What lied behind the low rates of vaccinations among nurses who treat infants?”is evidence of a growing resistance to vaccinating infants in the developed world.

What is unfortunate is that many of these nurses refuse the vaccinations themselves, yet proceed to administer these poisons to infants to protect their employment. That is quite cowardly, contradictory and at the very least shameful, not only as a health practitioner, but as a human being.

The aim of the study was to identify the barriers and reasons why nurses did not vaccinate themselves against pertussis despite the fact that the pertussis vaccine is the vaccine these nurses administer to infants every day. Two major and two minor themes were identified based on qualitative methods as described in the literature.

Lack of Trust in Health Authorities

The majority of nurses in all focus groups expressed, to varying
degrees, lack of trust in the health authorities regarding their
recommendation to be vaccinated. This was related to the recent
influenza pandemic.

“…there was a drastic change in trust…”

“…I feel a real crisis in trust due to the swine flu affair.”
The general mistrust generated during the A/H1N1 pandemic
was directed to the pertussis vaccine when they were asked to
vaccinate themselves.

Treatment of Nurses By The Employer
The nurses expressed their frustration with the administration
and complained of the treatment they received from the administration
that had no respect for them as individuals.

Some of the comments were related to the pertussis vaccine

“They should treat us like human beings.”

“…we are not soldiers…”

Most of the comments were related to the influenza vaccine:

“…we were threatened, we got multiple emails asking who got
vaccinated and if not why not…”

The Right For Autonomy

The nurses expressed strong feelings against the Ministry of Health’s (MOH’s) recommendation for Health Care Workers (HCW’s) to be vaccinated. They do not want to be told what to do and want to make the decision themselves.

Regarding pertussis:

“One nurse in the hospital got pertussis, and infected someoneor
not- don’t know. So then ‘wham’ all the nurses have
to get immunized, so no one got immunized and they are
right!…what are we?- in Soviet Russia?…on principle I am not
getting vaccinated this year.”

Regarding influenza:

“…if I want to, I will get the vaccine, I am a grownup, I am
responsible, if I want I will get vaccinated, it will not help whatever
he says (the MD).”

Within this conflict between self and profession they wanted to
be given the opportunity to decide for themselves if to get vaccinated.

They knew they had to work by “the book” regarding the
infants they treat. However, they do not accept the recommendations
blindly for themselves.

“…the line runs between me giving vaccines and receiving vaccines,
I can personally be against vaccinations but am not against
the national policy regarding vaccines, whoever wants can get
vaccinated…”

“I don’t want anybody to make me get immunized, I do not want
to, even if it is mandatory, even if it is pertussis, I don’t want to
get it.”

Mistrust of Health Information

Many nurses felt the information they received was not adequate and did not answer their needs. They felt the information they received did not help them counsel families or make decisions regarding their vaccinations. This was in the context of their mistrust in the MOH.

“With the swine flu there was a lot of disinformation at the
beginning, there was a lot of confusion at the beginning.”

“…you can’t brain wash us, they expect us to forget what they
said three months ago or a year ago and start again, part of what
we did was not so good, now we do something else… .you can
do that at work but not in my private life, I can’t…”

Being a Role Model

Most nurses did not see themselves as role models and did
not think they should reveal their personal behaviors or beliefs to
patients who ask them about themselves. However, a few nurses
found their decision not to be immunized problematic and debates
between nurses started in all focus groups.

“What I do as a person and my beliefs are not relevant at all as
a professional.”   read on...