Flu jab and viral illness

[Daven]

We were advised by all and sundry to get the flue jab last November.

 

Adds in the papers , notices in the Doctors surgery's , chemist shops and so on , so we all rolled our sleeves and suffered a couple of days of feeling crap.

 

All this must have cost the health service millions , money paid to the drug companies in Switzerland etc, then the doctor and chemist fee for stabbing us in the arm in the ten seconds allowed.

 

Guess what every one now seems to have flue , its not the proper flue apparently but a strain from Indo China or Australia that the jab is useless against .

I am coughing and spluttering as I type having caught it of my other half who caught it from some one on the bus.

 

That's me done with flue jabs as they come up with the same story every year while raking in the millions .

 

Not EVERYONE has the flu.

SOME people have flu - many many others have the common cold which is pretty standard for winter months.

ALL of my colleagues have had the 'flu jab - many of them have had colds but no one has had flu..... and we are front line staff.

If you are on SF - sitting at your computer moaning about flu then you don't have flu.

[Albert smith]

Not EVERYONE has the flu.

SOME people have flu - many many others have the common cold which is pretty standard for winter months.

ALL of my colleagues have had the 'flu jab - many of them have had colds but no one has had flu..... and we are front line staff.

If you are on SF - sitting at your computer moaning about flu then you don't have flu.

Perhaps you would like to change places with my wife who has been bedridden for five days . being sick, headache , high temperature and a cough that has left her in pain .

I have now come down with same , and apart from being sat at my computer I also have to put the bin out , mash the tea and go to the lave .

[biotechpete]

The reason the vaccine was pushed harder (if it was) is that we knew from Australia that a virulent flu strain was coming (Ah3n2). It has caused increased hospitalisations across the northern hemisphere this year.

[Ontarian1981]

We were advised by all and sundry to get the flue jab last November.

 

Adds in the papers , notices in the Doctors surgery's , chemist shops and so on , so we all rolled our sleeves and suffered a couple of days of feeling crap.

 

All this must have cost the health service millions , money paid to the drug companies in Switzerland etc, then the doctor and chemist fee for stabbing us in the arm in the ten seconds allowed.

 

Guess what every one now seems to have flue , its not the proper flue apparently but a strain from Indo China or Australia that the jab is useless against .

I am coughing and spluttering as I type having caught it of my other half who caught it from some one on the bus.

 

That's me done with flue jabs as they come up with the same story every year while raking in the millions .

 

A cold and the flu are totally different even if some symptoms are the same.

[Obelix]

Not EVERYONE has the flu.

SOME people have flu - many many others have the common cold which is pretty standard for winter months.

ALL of my colleagues have had the 'flu jab - many of them have had colds but no one has had flu..... and we are front line staff.

If you are on SF - sitting at your computer moaning about flu then you don't have flu.

 

I had flu once. As Daven says you know when you have it - it's nothing like a common cold. Flu is evil.

[onewheeldave]

An interesting short article in the BMJ January 2016 issue that addresses some of the issues raised in this thread, particularly the question of why many health staff avoid the flu vaccine-

 

[quote name= Jason A Wilson consultant anaesthetist and medical statistician

Department of Anaesthesia, Imperial College NHS Trust, London W6 8RF, UK]

 

Low uptake of the flu vaccine by healthcare staff might be a

response to the aggressive pro-vaccine rhetoric they experience

at work. Healthcare staff are sophisticated consumers who can

spot aggressive advertising campaigns that overestimate benefit,

underestimate harm, and are delivered with simplistic emotional

manipulation. They will naturally question who benefits and

can Google the facts.

 

An internet search will find that effectiveness of the flu vaccine

is only 10% in Australia this season and that, last year,

vaccinated people aged over 65 in the UK were more likely to

get influenza. The summary of product characteristics for the

common influenza vaccine states that harms related to

absenteeism occur in 1% to 10% of recipients, and the Cochrane

review of staff vaccination last year found that it didn’t protect

patients.

 

More searching finds that high vaccination rates in healthcare

staff result in better Care Quality Commission ratings and trigger

increased trust income through payments from Commissioning

for Quality and Innovation. Why is it surprising that some

staff respond by digging in their heels?

[Daven]

An interesting short article in the BMJ January 2016 issue that addresses some of the issues raised in this thread, particularly the question of why many health staff avoid the flu vaccine-

 

Or it could just be that they are scared of needles

I know for a fact that uptake of the flu jab at STH has been immense - so much so that there were queues forming at the jab stations.

Staff have their flu jab from choice - no one forces them, bribes them or drags then there against their will.

Just an observation.

Edited January 31, 2018 by Daven

[ICXCNIKA]

I had flu at the end of December for 2 weeks, not sure if it was the Australian strain or not. Over the past week it seems to have come back, although it hasn't been quite as debilitating.

I've never had the flu jab, but will do from now on in

[onewheeldave]

I know for a fact that uptake of the flu jab at STH has been immense - so much so that there were queues forming at the jab stations.

 

In general though, it's low. Vaccination uptake in England for 2013–2014 was only 54.8% for healthcare workers with direct patient contact.

 

(http://bmjopenrespres.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000079?cpetoc=&utm_source=TrendMD&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=_BMJ_Open_Resp_Res_TrendMD-0#ref-5)

[SnailyBoy]

In general though, it's low. Vaccination uptake in England for 2013–2014 was only 54.8% for healthcare workers with direct patient contact.

 

(http://bmjopenrespres.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000079?cpetoc=&utm_source=TrendMD&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=_BMJ_Open_Resp_Res_TrendMD-0#ref-5)

 

One of the conclusions of the reports was 'This suggests that more needs to be done to convey messages around flu vaccination to the healthcare community, and the present data may help to focus efforts to improve this in upcoming flu campaigns.'

 

Which may account for the anecdotal reports of a higher uptake for 2017-2018.