Forced flu shot at work

From the third article:

"A prospective study was conducted to estimate the relative risk of hospital-acquired influenza-like illness (ILI), based on exposures to other contagious individuals. Surveillance of influenza was conducted over 3 seasons."

I don't know about you but 'hospital-acquired influenza-like illness' tells me that they didn't swab them.

Additionally, things like the following statement mean that it is not conclusive that the infections where caused by staff:

"The likely source of influenza transmission for the outbreak was from health care worker contact, as only 15% of the unit staff had been immunized against influenza."

From the abstract for the second article:

"Vaccination of health care workers (HCWs) is recommended as a strategy for preventing influenza in elderly patients in long-term care. However, there have been no controlled studies to show whether this approach is effective. During the winter of 1994-1995, 1059 patients in 12 geriatric medical long-term-care sites, randomized for vaccination of HCWs, were studied. In hospitals where HCWs were offered vaccination, 653 (61%) of 1078 were vaccinated. Vaccination of HCWs was associated with reductions in total patient mortality from 17% to 10% (odds ratio [OR], 0.56; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.40-0.80) and in influenza-like illness (OR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.34-0.94). Vaccination of patients was not associated with significant effects on mortality (OR, 1.15; 95% CI, 0.81-1.64). Results of this study support recommendations for vaccination against influenza of HCWs in long-term geriatric care. Vaccination of frail elderly long-term-care patients may not give clinically worthwhile benefits."

Show me where it says they were swabbed. Where are there controls regarding other factors? The fact is that other factors were not controlled.

The first study does state that the patients were swabbed. Where is the proof that the patients from the previous year got the flu from staff? Where are other factors being controlled? What was the flu like during the research year? One year of study does not mean squat.

I hold a Masters in Nursing Education and do research. These studies are meaningless unless they control factors that can and will affect the outcome. Additionally, I would like to see the actual results and plug them into my own statistical analysis graph. Statistics can be skewed to show whatever the researcher wants, which is why I like to see how they come up with the conclusion.

On top of that, who are the researchers doing the study for? In other words, who is financing the study? That makes a difference. Many universities will give the results that a corporation wants by skewing their research in order to obtain funding.

I have been a nurse for 32 years never had the flu shot or the flu.

you clearly have a strong research background and will be able to find fault with every one of these clinical studies. I get that and honestly don't have the energy, so if you want to "win" this you're welcome to it. however, you are choosing to overlook the conclusions that have been found over and over again, which is that giving vaccination to health care workers HAS been shown to reduce mortality (and flu) among patients, whether you like it or not.