Miami Herald - December 6, 2002
John Dorschner, jdorschner@herald.com

The union would like Jackson Memorial Hospital leaders to agree to pay workers compensation for any workers who had a bad reaction to the vaccination, and it would like to keep workers away from some patients right after they take the shots.

"Let's plan carefully to protect everyone from needless harm," said Martha Baker, a trauma nurse and president of Service Employees International Union Local 1991, which represents 5,000 healthcare workers in South Florida.

"This is not without risk," said John Cienki, an emergency room physician at Jackson Memorial and a union member.

The union's central complaint is that healthcare workers are being asked to agree to waive all claims of injury and take the shots voluntarily, while pharmaceutical companies were granted immunity by Congress for any responsibility from the vaccinations.

"Why didn't they write protections into the law for healthcare professionals the way they did for others?" asked Cienki.

Cienki, who attended a meeting of union representatives and federal officials last month in Washington, said he also wanted workers who deal with HIV-positive and other immuno-compromised patients to be removed from contact with those patients for up to 17 days because they could be infectious after getting the shots.

"HIV people could die from this," Cienki said, meaning both the vaccination and being exposed to someone who has just had the vaccination. Until the scab heals, Cienki said, there is a small chance that the wound could infect someone by shedding the virus.

Jackson spokeswoman Conchita Ruiz-Topinka said executives had yet to be told of the union's requests. "We'll be glad to sit down with them and hear what their concerns are."

A crucial concern is that tens of millions more persons might be at risk from a smallpox vaccination today than they were when it was last given decades ago.

The main risk categories are those with immunocompromised systems, including AIDS patients and those taking chemotherapy for cancer.

The vaccination introduces a weak strain of the virus into the body, and while most healthy persons have no reaction to the shot, it could endanger persons who don't have an ordinary immune system.

Pregnant women and those with certain skin diseases should also not get the shot.

Cienki said he's also concerned about working in the emergency room right after he gets the shot. He says that a survey several years ago in a Newark emergency room indicated that a third of the patients were HIV-positive, and he assumes it could be a similar figure in Jackson's ER.

"I'm going to be shedding a virus. If I sneezed on them, they could die," Cienki said.

Scientists estimate that one in 3,000 will have an extremely adverse reaction to the vaccination. "If you saw pictures of those adverse events," said Cienki, "you'd think twice about doing this."

Jo Baxter, spokeswoman for Baptist Health South Florida, said that an informal survey of its workers indicated that about half would be willing to volunteer.

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