- Initial entitlement
- Vaccination (influenza)
The worker was a Diagnostic Imaging Clerk with a hospital. On November 1, 2016 she received an influenza vaccine into her left arm. The injection occurred at work. Her employer had encouraged its employees to receive the vaccination. In this appeal the worker was seeking initial entitlement for an adverse reaction to an influenza vaccine.
The Panel noted that it had difficulty understanding specifically what WSIB policy (OPM Document No. 15-04-10) intended when referring to granting benefits for the unintended effects of vaccines for workers who, due to the nature of their occupation, are exposed to infectious disease. The worker in the present appeal would have been exposed to infectious disease from co-workers and patients while performing her occupation but it was difficult to imagine almost any job dealing with co-workers and the public where the same could not be said. It was not clear in the evidence before the Panel that, as a health care worker in a hospital, the worker would have been at an elevated risk for catching influenza. The Panel made no finding on this issue as there was a lack of reliable evidence to make such a finding. It was possible to state, however, that if the worker was to catch the influenza virus that the worker would pose a greater danger to the clients of the employer than would be expected in most other workplace settings due to the potentially higher vulnerability of hospital patients. The Panel concluded that in the circumstances, including that the employer strongly encouraged the worker to obtain the vaccine, supplied the vaccine and the health care provider to inject it, and the worker received the vaccine while on a work shift, the worker received the vaccine in the course of her employment and any adverse effects of the vaccine arose out of her employment.The worker had initial entitlement for the adverse reaction to the vaccine.The appeal was allowed.