The Dialogue: What Readers Had to Say About the Woman Who Died at an Oregon Prison After Not Receiving a Flu Vaccine

“Being incarcerated does not warrant this kind of neglect.”

An inmate at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. (Leah Nash)
By WW Staff

Last week, WW revealed that the Oregon's women's prison, Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, failed to provide flu shots to most of its inmates. One prisoner, Tina Ferri, contracted the virus and died after not receiving a vaccination ("A Bug in the System, WW, March 21, 2018). While this year's flu season has been particularly severe, experts say Ferri's death at Coffee Creek—where only 18 percent of inmates were inoculated—could have been avoided. Here's what our readers had to say.

Wrapitup, via wweek.com: "This is just common-sense health care and they blew it. I hope there is at least some record of the providers and nurses complaining about lack of vaccinations among the inmates. Any general practitioner worth their salt would have brought this oversight up months ago."

Erica Degenhardt, via Twitter: "This is sad. Basic care should be available and given, especially in large, confined populations. It's pretty amazing more people didn't die."

Cspdx11, via wweek.com: "Being incarcerated does not warrant this kind of neglect."

Traffic Vixen, via wweek.com: "She was paying her debt to society already. A mother, wife and human being shouldn't die for failure to receive a $7 flu shot. There's no winner here."

Christina Sheinin, via Facebook: "People in unsanitary and crowded conditions like prisons are especially vulnerable to illnesses and should be vaccinated against the flu."

Chris Prothero, via Facebook: "This year's vaccine was minimally effective. Chances are slim that the outcome would have been much different had the rate been 100 percent."

Mutie, via wweek.com: "It's cheaper to vaccinate the prison population than to treat them after they get ill."

Jackson deGrunge, via wweek.com: "My condolences to the bereaved of the deceased; no matter what someone did to get to be incarcerated, it is the state's job to look out for their welfare."

Erin pdx, via Twitter: "This is obscene! That poor woman and her family. I hope her death is not in vain, and there is not only swift justice but also meaningful reform."

Vladiator, via wweek.com: "America has some serious human rights abuses that take place on the regular. And I don't see any of it changing anytime soon."

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