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2 Students Get Swine Flu Vaccine Without Parental Consent
By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 30, 2009
Modified Oct 30, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 30, 2009
Modified Oct 30, 2009
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So much for those parental consent forms! Two public school students, one in Brooklyn and one in Staten Island, were given the swine flu vaccine without signed consent forms. The NYC Health Department told the NY Times, "We are working to determine how this occurred, and to implement additional safeguards."
The Health Department also says it's investigating the incident and noted, in a joint press release with the Department of Education, "The Health Department has trained all nurses to follow a protocol for confirming parental consent and reviewing each child's health screening information before vaccine is administered. These children have had no adverse effects and the Health Department does not expect any future adverse medical effects for these children, but we are working to determine how this misstep occurred, and we will develop additional safeguards to prevent similar instances in the future."
The city started its program to offer swine flu vaccines to all NYC public school students on Wednesday. Students were given parental consent forms and, if signed, were able to get the H1N1 vaccine from the school nurse. At this point, less than half of the parents have signed the form.
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health department
parental consent
school nurse
swine flu
swine flu vaccine
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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