George Ilavsky

27060 Oakwood Circle Apt 110M

Olmsted Township, OH 44138

May 19, 2015

Chairman Young, Vice Chair Devitis, Ranking Member Lepore-Hagan and members of the Commerce and Labor Committee, thank you for allowing me to provide testimony on House Bill 170.

I am writing to ask that you support House Bill 170, to prohibit mandates about vaccination for health care workers, particularly the current requirement that workers receive the annual flu vaccine or wear a face mask for the duration of the flu season.

This mandate has been tied to reimbursement for health care systems, yet is not based on science and violates the rights of health care workers to make autonomous decisions about their own health, particularly in the face of evidence that runs counter to this mandate. There is no scientific basis for imposing this requirement on health care workers as evidenced by the following:

  • Studies show that non-invasive techniques such as handwashing and basic hygiene can be highly effective in controlling the spread of respiratory viruses. (2)
  • The CDC has inflated mortality and morbidity statistics by including all respiratory and cardiac events as possibly flu related. Influenza related deaths are estimated to be approximately 1/10 of the inflated results, a fact that the CDC reports. Actual influenza related deaths are estimated to be approximately 3000 annually, not the 30,000 typically reported in marketing campaigns. (3,4)
  • Many formulations of the influenza vaccine contain the preservative, Thimerosal that has been eliminated from other vaccines due to negative health consequences. Vaccines often result in significant adverse reactions. (5,6)
  • There are extensive animal studies showing the dangers of over-vaccination such that veterinarians no longer recommend annual vaccination for domestic animals. There are no long term safety studies demonstrating the safety of repeat vaccination in humans, in spite of knowing this is harmful in animal studies.
  • A recent study shows that repeat vaccination has negative effects over time such that people who receive an annual vaccination in earlier years/middle adulthood are likely to be more susceptible to the flu as they age, just when they may need protection most. (7)
  • The current mandate requires that unvaccinated people wear a face mask which can only be seen as punitive in that there is no reason for an asymptomatic person to wear a mask. Individuals who have been vaccinated but may be ill (which happens often) have no such requirement.
  • Increasing numbers of nurses and other health care workers are reconsidering their career choice. Due to poor working conditions, inadequate equipment, and now mandates to receive vaccinations against individual choice. Workers have been threatened and punished for not complying with a mandate that is not scientifically sound, that violates individual rights, and that is known to bring some risks as evidenced by animal studies and the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System. (5)
  • The highly esteemed Cochrane Collaboration has reported, following an extensive review of the research that mandatory vaccination is not effective in preventing the spread of flu in a long term care setting, a population considered to be at highest risk. Further, they support physical interventions such as handwashing as an effective measure. (8.9,10)
  • A recent and extensive report by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy similarly shows that there is little, if any evidence that vaccinating healthcare workers has any effect on protecting patients, a claim that is at the core of the current mandate. (11)
  • Flu vaccination has been found to increase susceptibility to other serious respiratory illnesses in a comparison of vaccinated to unvaccinated individuals. (12)

The current flu vaccine mandate is not based on sound science, is not known to be safe or effective, and violates the rights of individuals to make decisions affecting their own health. Health care workers are being threatened with termination or pay decrease if they do not comply with this unfounded mandate. I encourage you to support HB 170 that prohibits the imposition of mandates that force individuals to accept unsound medical treatment as a condition of employment. I can assure you that I would not have chosen to work as a Laboratory Technician, had I known my employers could impose such unsound and draconian measures as a condition of employment. The current flu vaccine mandate is bad science and an attack on the rights of people to make decisions about their own health. Thank you for your consideration.

Regards,

George Ilavsky

References

1. Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program Support Contractor. (2012). Handbook II: CMS hospital inpatient quali-ty reporting program. In Handbook II: CMS hospital inpatient quality reporting program (pp. 1 - 46). Retrieved from

2. Citation: Aiello AE, Perez V, Coulborn RM, Davis BM, Uddin M, et al. (2012) Facemasks, Hand Hygiene, and Influenza among Young Adults: A Randomized Intervention Trial. PLoS ONE 7(1): e29744. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0029744

3. Estimating seasonal influenza - associated deaths in the United States: CDC study confirms variability of flu. (2013). Retrieved from

4. Trends in inpatient hospital deaths: National hospital discharge survey, 2000 –2010. (2013). Retrieved from

5. National vaccine injury compensation program. (2014). Data and Statistics. Retrieved from

6.Fluzone. (2014). Retrieved from ApprovedProducts/UCM305089.pdf

7. Carrat, F., Lavenu, A., Cauchemez, S., & Deleger, S. (2006). Repeated influenza vaccination of healthy children and adults: borrow now, pay later? Epidemiology and Infection, 134(1), 63-70.

8. Thomas, RE, Jefferson, T., & Lasserson, TJ. (2013). Influenza vaccination for healthcare workers who care for people aged 60 or older living in long-term care institutions. The Cochrane Collaboration.

9.Jefferson T, Del Mar CB, Dooley L, Ferroni E, Al-Ansary LA, Bawazeer GA, van Driel ML, Nair S, Jones MA, Thorning S, Conly JM (2011). Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses.The Cochrane Collaboration.

10. Demecheli, V., An -Ansary, L., Jefferson, T., Ferroni, E., Rivetti, A., & Di Pietrantonj, C. (2014, March 13). Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy adults.The Cochrane Collaboration.

11. Osterholm, M. T., Kelley, N. S., Manske, J., Ballering, K., Leighton, T., & Moore, K. (2012). The compelling need for game-changing influenza vaccines: An analysis of the influenza enterprise and recommendations for the future. Retrieved from

12. Cowling, BJ, Fang, VJ, Nishiura, H., Chan, K-H, Ng, S, Ip, DKM, Chiu, SS, Leung, GM, & Malik Peiris. (2012). Increased risk of noninfluenza respiratory virus infections associated with receipt of inactivated influenza vaccine. Clinical Infectious Disease, 54, 1778-1783.