HHS Advisory Panel Backs Hotly Contested Idea Of Mandatory Health Worker Flu Shots

An advisory panel to federal health officials has approved a controversial recommendation that health care employers consider a mandatory approach to influenza shots for their workers if necessary to achieve higher vaccination rate goals. The move comes amid heated debate on the issue and over organized labor's objections to the idea of HHS providing what they consider a license to health care facilities to fire workers who decline such vaccinations. A union official also claims that the panel's work group did not follow federal guidelines on advisory panel procedures when developing the recom