The Colorado Board of Health will have the final hearing and adoption of the
new rule that mandates healthcare workers get an annual flu vaccine on Feb.
15, 2012. There is NO religious or personal exemption in the current
version of the rule. Time is running out and comments must be
received by Feb. 1st, 2012.
ACTION NEEDED NOW:
Send written comments addressed to the Colorado Board of Health before Feb.
1st, 2012 to the attention of Jamie Thornton and plan on attending the final
hearing on Feb. 15th.
http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/op/bh/hearingnotices/6CCR1011-1ChIIPart10Influenza/Notice.pdf
The revised rule can be found here:
http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/op/bh/hearingnotices/6CCR1011-1ChIIPart10Influenza/ProposedAmendments.pdf
The Statement of Basis and Purpose, why they are doing this, can be
found here:
http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/op/bh/hearingnotices/6CCR1011-1ChIIPart10Influenza/StatementOfBasisAndPurpose.pdf
The so-called regulatory, including the cost of this rule, can be found
here:
http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/op/bh/hearingnotices/6CCR1011-1ChIIPart10Influenza/RegulatoryAnalysis.pdf
Jamie Thornton, Board Program Assistant
4300 Cherry Creek Dr. South
Denver, CO 80246-1530
303-692-3464
303-691-7702 - fax
The official agenda will be posted on the
health dept. web site here: http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/op/bh/
MAIN POINTS TO MAKE:
1. Not allowing a declination for religious
reasons is a civil rights violation, a human rights violation and eliminates a
religious right that has been recognized in the state of Colorado for
years. There will be legal challenges to this rule that will be costly for
the State of Colorado.
EEOC rules state religious exemptions must be
allowed. This rule violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Code and the
ADA: http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/pandemic_flu.html#36
see pint #13 in this EEOC Document.
Tell the board the rule must include
an exemption or declination for religious reasons. The state
can not define religion and they can not discriminate based on
religion.
2. This rule needs to go through the
legislative process, not the rule-making process being used by the Board of
Health. The true stakeholders were not engaged in the drafting
process. No one was allowed to comment at public
meetings where this issue was discussed and an opposing view or comments was not
allowed after the very biased presentation at the board meeting on Jan.
18th. The regulatory analysis that was done, is inadequate and there
has been no true cost/benefit analysis done.
Tell the board to vote NO on
this rule and send it to the legislature, the appropriate place for
this matter that will effect so many people who have not had a chance to be
involved in the process.
Mark your calendar for Feb. 15th and plan to
attend the board meeting for the final hearing of this rule. The board
will allow public comments, however they may limit the time depending on how
many people want to comment. They may allow 5 minutes a person, or less
than that.
Details of the meeting can be found here: