NYC swine flu vaccine to arrive next week for health care workers

New York City will be getting the first doses of swine flu vaccine next week. About 80,000 doses will be arriving within the city itself with 100,000 doses to go to upstate counties.

The first wave of vaccine will be going to those in the health care field. Those workers have been ordered to have the vaccine by December. Some of those ordered to have the vaccine have said that it's a violation of their personal freedoms. New York Daily News reports:

"We don't feel the government should have the right to force us to put any substance - whether or not the government feels it's safe - into our body," Laura Ally, a nurse at St. Peter's Hospital in Albany, said at a rally outside the state capitol.

Those workers must have the vaccine or risk losing their jobs, as ordered by the New York State Department of Health. Newsday reports:

"We're going into a third flu season in one calendar year," said Dr. Richard Daines, the state commissioner of health. "And there's a lesson there. Every time flu rips through our system it creates harm."

The first doses will be in the form of a nasal mist. This vaccine is only for healthy people between the ages of 2 to 49. Pregnant women are not in this group. The state of New York has about 10 million people who fit into the priority groups for the swine flu vaccine. Shipments of the injection will follow the first wave of vaccine.