In a commentary on mandatory vaccination of health care workers, Elizabeth Rea and Ross Upshur state that the burden involved for health care workers to accept vaccination “can be eased by providing free vaccine, [and] compensation for vaccine-related adverse effects … .”1 Compensation for vaccine-related adverse effects is an interesting suggestion, but it is important to note that Health Canada acknowledges that “currently, Quebec is the only jurisdiction in Canada to have a compensation plan [for vaccine-associated adverse events].”2 Many health care workers in Ontario have been promised by their employers that they will not dispute any compensation claims. This is misleading, for it suggests that compensation is actually available.
Offering vaccination as an option to our health care workers may be supportable, but coercion, whether financial or emotional, truly constitutes a violation of both ethical and legal rights. Perhaps a better solution would be to review infection control procedures, to prevent mass transmission and to reconsider attendance management policies that effectively prevent ill workers from taking necessary time off.
Signature
Catherine Diodati
Windsor, Ont.
References
- 1.Rea E, Upshur R. Semmelweis revisited: the ethics of infection prevention among health care workers [commentary]. CMAJ 2001;164(10): 1447-8. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
- 2.Immunization in Canada. In: Canadian National Report on Immunization. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 1996;23S4.