Politics on the Hudson

   About 60 people gathered on the steps of the Capitol this afternoon to protest the mandate that most health-care workers get by H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccinations by Nov. 30.

   Patricia Hyson, 55, said she has been a licensed practical nurse for 37 years at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady and has never received a flu shot or gotten influenza. Her father was healthy and contracted Guillain-Barre syndrome as a result of a flu shot, she said. Guillain-Barre is a disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system, according to the National Institutes of Health.

   ”The patients have the right to refuse the flu shot, so why do we have to have it?” Hyson asked.

   Four nurses from the Albany area plan to sue the state on the issue. Their lawyer, Terence Kindlon, said he plans to file the lawsuit in state Supreme Court in Albany Monday. There are civil rights and constitutional rights issues involved in requiring the shots.

   Kindlon said he spoke with two large public-worker unions in the state about filing concurrent lawsuits, although he would not name them.

   “I wish I could say it’s going to be easy. I can’t say that. It looks as if this is going to be a very high mountain to climb,” he said.

   The Public Employees Federation, which represents 59,000 professional, scientific and technical state employees, confirmed that Kindlon had reached out to the union. Spokeswoman Darcy Wells would not say whether PEF was planning a lawsuit.

   “We’re exploring all our legal options,” she said.

   A spokesman for the Civil Service Employees Association said the union, which has nearly 300,000 members, has concerns about the mandate and was not ruling out any options as far as what actions it would take.

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