‘Puter got an email regarding his reasoned discussion yesterday on the selfish New York health care workers who are willing to infect you with a potentially lethal virus because they don’t like getting shots.

The reader makes three points, to which ‘Puter will respond. ‘Puter’s correspondent’s actual language is in italics, for those playing along at home.

1) There are rumors out there (more than rumors actually) that the vaccines, on average, may be notably more dangerous than the average vaccine, and that given the relative risk of death due to swine flu, it may not be worth the risks,

Oh. Rumors. More than rumors actually. ‘Puter apologizes for not consulting noted scientist and pinup girl Jenny McCarthy on the increased incidence of Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS) resulting from the 1976 swine flu jab and its potential implications for the current H1N1 vaccine. ‘Puter instead foolishly consulted, you know, actual professional medical personnel who work at a little-known government outfit known cryptically as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC recommends that just about everyone get the swine flu vaccine, with those over 64 going last, as they appear to have some immunity to the virus. Of course, as ‘Puter noted in his post, individuals are free to make their own choices as to whether or not to get the swine flu jab. But, unless you are one of the very few folks the CDC does not recommend get the shot, there’s very little question about the risk/reward calculus. Unless Jenny McCarthy’s doing your math.

2) they are health professionals and consequentally (sic) either individually or in aggregate more competant (sic) to judge the relative merits of the vaccine than either you or the health policy ‘experts’ who often lack significant medical training or experience,

Again, ‘Puter consulted the little know hermit-scientists at the CDC. ‘Puter’s fairly certain the folks at the CDC have at least a minimum of “medical training or experience.” The CDC says in no uncertain terms that the vaccine is very safe, while noting that no vaccine is ever completely free from risk. The risks are equivalent to those of the annual seasonal flu vaccination, which is given to everyone from 6 months on up, without worry. Unless you’re allergic to chicken eggs.

3) it is not a term of employment, it is being added as a condition of employment late in the game, sort of like if The Mandarin or the Czar are your only employers and they tell you three years into your job that you need to do their laundry and clean their rain gutters in addition to your other duties.

‘Puter disagrees, at least insofar as his reader is discussing health care workers. It is true that Czar and Mandarin work ‘Puter like a four year old Vietnamese kid stitching sneakers at a Nike sweatshop, but that’s another story. It is an implied condition of employment for health care workers that they not put their patients at unnecessary risk at all, and certainly not without the patients’ informed consent. Failing to get a mandated vaccination for a highly infectious disease does just that. Additionally, employers are generally free outside of labor contracts to change the terms of employment at will. Employees are then free to tolerate the change, renegotiate their deal or quit. Unionized employees could in theory claim that a requirement of a non-risky swine flu vaccination amounts to an unauthorized renegotiation of applicable contract terms. ‘Puter hopes the New York health care workers’ unions are stupid enough to pull that stunt. Taxpayers are already fed up here, and the selfish refusal of unions to put patients first would put most of us Upstaters into metaphorical open rebellion against Albany and the unions.

Oh, ‘Puter almost forgot. His correspondent did have one last parting jab.

If you really think “millions of unemployed would happily get the required vaccinations and take [their] job[s]” you need to learn a bit about the amount of education and other training required to be an RN, Physicians Assistant, or any of the host of other jobs that fall under “Health Care Workers”.

Well, ‘Puter spent a little time, like three seconds on teh intarwebs, and found the website for 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. Here’s how the union describes its own membership “[o]ur members range from Registered Nurses and other professional and technical employees, e.g. social workers, physician assistants, pharmacists, radiologists, physical therapists, etc. to clerical, service and maintenance workers. In many facilities, our Union includes all non-management or administrative employees.” So, all the secretaries, nutritionists, custodians, etc. are highly educated, irreplaceable healthcare workers? Frankly, ‘Puter thinks if a highly educated PA or RN doubts the efficacy and safety of the H1N1 vaccine in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary, they are incompetent to provide health services in teh first instance. And, believe it or not, there are actually unemployed nurses and PAs.

Well, enough for this edition of ‘Puter’s mailbag. Keep ’em coming. We do appreciate feedback, even when we disagree. Except for Czar. Only send him paeans to his majesty, or he’ll disappear you.

'Puter

Always right, unless he isn’t, the infallible Ghettoputer F. X. Gormogons claims to be an in-law of the Volgi, although no one really believes this.

’Puter carefully follows economic and financial trends, legal affairs, and serves as the Gormogons’ financial and legal advisor. He successfully defended us against a lawsuit from a liquor distributor worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid deliveries of bootleg shandies.

The Geep has an IQ so high it is untestable and attempts to measure it have resulted in dangerously unstable results as well as injuries to researchers. Coincidentally, he publishes intelligence tests as a side gig.

His sarcasm is so highly developed it borders on the psychic, and he is often able to insult a person even before meeting them. ’Puter enjoys hunting small game with 000 slugs and punt guns, correcting homilies in real time at Mass, and undermining unions. ’Puter likes to wear a hockey mask and carry an axe into public campgrounds, where he bursts into people’s tents and screams. As you might expect, he has been shot several times but remains completely undeterred.

He assures us that his obsessive fawning over news stories involving women teachers sleeping with young students is not Freudian in any way, although he admits something similar once happened to him. Uniquely, ’Puter is unable to speak, read, or write Russian, but he is able to sing it fluently.

Geep joined the order in the mid-1980s. He arrived at the Castle door with dozens of steamer trunks and an inarticulate hissing creature of astonishingly low intelligence he calls “Sleestak.” Ghettoputer appears to make his wishes known to Sleestak, although no one is sure whether this is the result of complex sign language, expert body posture reading, or simply beating Sleestak with a rubber mallet.

‘Puter suggests the Czar suck it.