MY TURN - Threat of mandated vaccines here is real

The article published by The Press, "Protestors Oppose Vaccine Mandates for Medical Field," Kootenai Health isn't requiring vaccines, but that's not the point, some say" is misleading.

Kootenai Health DID require the flu vaccine in 2015, and in fact, terminated myself and close to 100 other employees for refusing to take the flu vaccine. The current employees and protesters from the Aug. 12 demonstration have a valid concern regarding a repeat performance by Kootenai Health. As health care professionals, they understand the violation of the Nuremberg Code and Patients Bill of Rights.

Health Freedom should be a concern of every citizen in the United States as fear over COVID-19 is leading to rash mandates by government and private companies. These freedoms were once denied persecuted groups during WWII resulting in horrors the world was determined NOT to repeat. Out of the Nuremberg Trials which prosecuted NAZI war criminals, the Nuremberg Code was developed. It outlined 10 ethical principles to which physicians must conform.

The first standard of this Code is "VOLUNTARY CONSENT." Obviously voluntary consent is being denied in mandated settings. Further, I know that after having worked for over 40 years in the acute hospital setting, part of the Patient's Bill of Rights requires patients to be given the "risk versus benefits" of vaccine treatment by physicians before they are administered, so that informed consent may be given by the patient. Employees compelled to submit to this medical treatment without the right to refuse is outrageous by any human care standard (prior to the COVID-19).

Another standard in this code dictates that, "the degree of risk should never exceed that determined by the humanitarian importance of the problem to be solved." Those people who have had COVID and now carry active immunity stand to gain nothing from a vaccine that even now is demonstrating diminishing effectiveness worldwide, and as most drugs, does have potential side effects and adverse reactions.

The threat of Mandated Vaccines by Kootenai Health is very real, in fact, it has happened before. Health Freedom should be a concern for all citizens of the United States. It is time to take a stand or lose the right to determine what will be done with your body. Regardless of your political affiliation, do YOU want the government telling you what is best for your health and giving you no choice to refuse?

• • •

Chelly Coon, RN, is a resident of Hayden.