Saying They Should Be Given A Choice, Employees Rally In Albany, Around State, Chant "No Forced Shots!" Protesters Hold Signs That Read: "The State Doesn't Own My Body'"

STONY BROOK, N.Y. (CBS) ―

(9/29/2009) They're upset over an ultimatum from the health department.

Workers are being told to either get the swine flu vaccine or lose their jobs.

New York is the first state in the country to mandate flu vaccinationsfor its health care workers. The first doses of swine flu vaccine willbe available beginning next week. Much of it is reserved for statehealth care workers, but there is growing opposition to requiredinnoculations.

Health care workers in Hauppauge screamed "No forced shots!" as theyrallied Tuesday against the state regulation requiring them to roll uptheir sleeves.

"I don't even tend to the sick. I am in the nutrition field. They aretelling me I must get the shot because I work in a health clinicsetting," said Paula Small, a Women, Infants and Children health careworker.

Small said she will refuse, worried the vaccine is untested andunproven, leaving her vulnerable. In 1976, there were some deathsassociated with a swine flu vaccination.

Registered nurse Frank Mannino, 50, was also angry. He said the state regulation violates his personal freedom and civil rights.

"And now I will lose my job if I don't take the regular flu shot or the swine flu shot."

 Should Workers Be Forced To Get Vaccinated? Comment On This Story!

When asked if he's willing to lose his job, Mannino said, "Absolutely.I will not take it, will not be forced. This is still America."

The protest also shook Albany Tuesday. Hundreds of demonstratorsdemanded freedom of choice. After all, as health care professionalsthey argue they're already constantly washing their hands and aren'tlikely to transmit or contract the flu.

Around 500,000 health care workers are slated to receive the vaccine.

"It's certainly their prerogative to voice their opinion," said Dr. Susan Donelan of Stony Brook University Hospital.

Donelan said most in the medical community see the benefits and safetyof the shots and welcome them, and that hospitals must obey the law.

"Our hospital is committed to following the mandate to have our personnel vaccinated," she said.

The state said change was needed this year to save lives, typicallyonly about 45 percent of health care workers take advantage ofvoluntary flu vaccines.

More than 150 institutional outbreaks of seasonal and H1N1 flu areexpected this year in hospitals, nursing homes and hospice centers.

New York and New Jersey will get their first doses of the swine flu vaccine next week. It will be the nasal mist, not a shot.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/fdic-discloses-deposit-insurance-fund-now-negative

In an unprecedented disclosure, the FDIC has highlighted that itexpects the DIF reserve ratio to be negative as of September 30. Asthere are a whopping 48 hours before that deadline, one can safelyassume that the DIF is now well into negative territory: as of todaydepositors have no insurance courtesy of a banking system that hasleeched out all the capital of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Let's pray there is no run on the bank soon.

"Pursuantto these requirements, staff estimates that both the Fund balance andthe reserve ratio as of September 30, 2009, will be negative.This reflects, in part, an increase in provisioning for anticipatedfailures. In contrast, cash and marketable securities available toresolve failed institutions remain positive."

Additionally,the FDIC has now raised its expectation for bank failure costs from $70billion $100 billion. Feel free to expect this number to continuegrowing.

"Staffhas also projected the Fund balance and reserve ratio for each quarterover the next several years using the most recently availableinformation on expected failures and loss rates and statisticalanalyses of trends in CAMELS downgrades, failure rates and loss rates.Staff projects that, over the period 2009 through 2013, the Fund couldincur approximately $100 billion in failure costs. Staff projects thatmost of these costs will occur in 2009 and 2010. Approximately $25billion of the $100 billion amount has already been incurred in failurecosts so far in 2009. Staff projects that most of these costs willoccur in 2009 and 2010."

First Mary Schapiro has failed at her task of "regulating" anything onWall Street, and now Sheila Bair presides over a newly insolventinstitution. Chalk one up to Washington's success at "containing" thecrisis. Zero Hedge wishes Ms. Bair all the luck in the world inreturning the DIF to its statutory minimumrequirement of 1.15% of all insured deposits (a shortfall of a merehundred billion or so). Maybe she can convert the FDIC to a REIT andhave Merrill Lynch do a concurrent IPO and follow-on offering (whileGoldman raises it to a Conviction Buy which incorporates the firm'sexpectations for 10% GDP growth in 2010 coupled with projections for$1,000 per barrel of crude)?

All quotes came from this document of the FDIC outlining its failure

http://www.fdic.gov/news/board/Sept29no1.pdf

By Helen Branswell, Medical Reporter, The Canadian Press

TORONTO - Faced with puzzling but unconfirmed evidence that suggests a seasonal flu shot may raise the risk of catching swine flu, Ontario announced Thursday it is rescheduling its seasonal flu vaccine program to delay most of it until after pandemic vaccine has been administered.

At a news conference in Toronto, Dr. Arlene King, the province's chief medical officer of health, said the seasonal and pandemic vaccines will be delivered in three waves, starting in October.

People 65 and older, who have been largely spared by swine flu but who are at greater risk from seasonal flu, will be offered seasonal shots then. When the pandemic vaccine becomes available in November, all in Ontario who want to be vaccinated will be given access to those shots.

Once the pandemic vaccination effort is completed, Ontario plans to resume the seasonal flu shot program, which offers free vaccination to anyone who wants it. By then, said Dr. Vivek Goel, president of the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion, the questions about a possible link between seasonal shots and swine flu infection may have been answered.

Drawn from a series of studies from British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario, the findings appear to suggest that people who got a seasonal flu shot last year are about twice as likely to catch swine flu as people who didn't. The findings haven't yet been published and few people have actually seen them.

But they have been looming like a spectre over decisions about vaccine delivery timing in Canada and are a source of consternation internationally.

"This has been a very difficult decision," King said in an interview. "This has been difficult for everyone across the country."

The head of the World Health Organization's vaccine research initiative, Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, said Thursday that researchers in the U.S., Britain and Australia have looked for the same effect and have not observed it.

People who have seen the unpublished scientific paper say the elevated risk - if it exists - is only that people who've had flu shots catch swine flu. It does not suggest they get more severe disease.

King admitted adjustments had been made, both to deal with the concerns raised by the unpublished study and the worries that there may be a double pronged flu season, with swine flu hitting children and adults under 60 or so and seasonal flu viruses targeting people over 65.

"Is it typical that we adjust our program? No it isn't typical. But we are not dealing with a typical flu season this year," King said.

Influenza expert Dr. Allison McGeer said the compromise makes sense.

"It's a reasonable balance," said McGeer, who is head of infection control at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital. "(But) it has some obvious logistical challenges."

McGeer acknowledged there was discussion about whether giving seasonal shots to seniors in October might actually spark more infections in that age group, if the effect seen in the unpublished paper is valid. But she said on balance it was thought that the risk seasonal flu viruses pose to this group outweighed the theoretical risk the studies showed.

And King noted that in the troubling data, the effect was not seen in people 65 and older.

Earlier in the week when it first emerged that some provinces were thinking of delaying their seasonal flu shot delivery efforts, a number of provinces expressed hope a pan-Canadian approach could be adopted.

King said that would have been desirable, if it were possible, but it became apparent that different jurisdictions were weighing factors differently and a one-size-fits-all solution seemed out of reach.