Victory for New York State Health Care Workers
C. Linderman Sr. ATO Opinion Press Oct 16 2009

The New York State Supreme Court has just ruled in favor of Health Care workers in the state regarding the mandatory H1N1 vaccine that state officials have tried to make mandatory. The challenge was heard today and was brought to the State’s Supreme Court by over 60,000 health care workers. Attorney Patricia Flynn asked for a temporary restraining order to prevent the State’s health commissioner from making the H1N1 vaccine mandatory and a precondition to continued employment.

New York is the only state to require the vaccine for all of its health care workers. Flynn was quoted as saying prior to the case being heard; “We’re simply challenging the authority of the commissioner to promulgate these rules. In our reading of the statute they do not have the authority to tie vaccines to employment.”

The State of New York has clearly stated that they plan to carry out this mandatory order and they feel confident that the ruling will be overturned.

This was a very important case today. One that should have ramifications in the decision making processes of other states within the union. Make no mistake that many of the other health commissioners, as well as employers, across the country were paying very close attention to the Supreme Court case in NY. This is simply a constitutional issue to many that work in the health care field. Moms and dads across the country also feel that if the state of New York had prevailed, that their children would be the next in line for the mandatory vaccines.
We must remain vigilant however. New York State has already stated that they plan to appeal the decision though for the life of me I can’t see why. This issue is bringing people to the forefront of the vaccine debate overall that would normally not be involved. This is the one positive thing that I can see from this case and others like it in the future. Many more people within the community are starting to pay attention to the horrible adverse reactions that can be attributed to vaccines in general. This is facilitating the awareness that those of us in the autism community have tried to raise for some time now: vaccines can have adverse consequences and some of those could be an autism diagnosis.

The fight rages on…..