Flu jab, does anyone bother paying for it?

prhymeate

I've never had it before, but now that I've considered it I feel like if I don't I will inevitably end up catching the flu and wishing I'd spent the £12.99 for the jab.

fenix

Never had the jab and I've only had proper flu once in my life.

Unless I was high risk I don't think I'd get the jab.

fat daddy

I have been offered it free from work for the last few years ...... never taken them up on it, certainly wouldn't pay for it if I cant be arsed to get it for free.

I do know a lot of people that have had the shot though and wished they hadn't because it made them quite ill for a while. I thought my Parents were just being weak sauce when they complained a flu jab made them ill ... but then the next year my boss was off work for 2 weeks after having a shot, the following year 2 other people I work with had the shot and became quite ill.

It probably is a good idea if you are one of the weak or elderly, but personally I am staying away from it until death becomes a probability of flu

keef66

Prhymeate wrote:

I've never had it before, but now that I've considered it I feel like if I don't I will inevitably end up catching the flu and wishing I'd spent the £12.99 for the jab.

In 59 years I've only had flu twice. Had a couple of flu jabs when they were offering them free at work, but never considered paying for one.

I suppose I might if my health was compromised in some other way or if I was caring for someone frail / elderly...

fenix

I think when I had the flu I was off work for a week. So to be off for two weeks after the jab sounds a lot worse.

step83

Had it last year an this, it is very hit an miss as to who gets ill from it, last year it knocked me for six. This year had a sniffle for a couple of days an that's been it.as to if it works, touch wood I didn't have the flu last year just a couple of minor colds.

Stevo_666

Nope. If the company offers it I will have it, otherwise CBA.

mamba80

Fenix wrote:

I think when I had the flu I was off work for a week. So to be off for two weeks after the jab sounds a lot worse.

didnt think it could make you ill? as it contains no live virus, unless your allergic to the egg base.

the problem is that people take it really late into the season and it takes a few weeks to reach full effectiveness, so if you get ill, easy to put it down to the jab.

i always have one, after getting flu several years ago and taking 6 weeks to get over it, i thought i d had flu before but i was wrong.

photonic69

Fenix wrote:

I think when I had a bad cold I was off work for a week. So to be off for two weeks after the jab sounds a lot worse.

FTFY ;-)

Proper flu is nasty. I get it about once every three years. I'm quite literally in bed wearing thermals, leggings, a fleece, duvet etc feeling freezing cold but sweating buckets with a temperature of 40+ !!! It takes a lot to get over it back to true fitness again. Since doing more cycling I tend to get it less. So that's all good then.

Secteur

Myth: The Flu Jab Makes You Ill

People don't realise that this is the time of year when you commonly get colds. It's also the time of year you commonly get 'flu jabs. The two are unrelated, and occur coincidentally, yet people still persist in the notion that the jab gave them a cold so they refuse to have it thereafter.

At worse, it'll give you a sore arm (unless you have an allergic reaction, which would be vanishingly rare).

All that said, I personally think that I would only have it if I were at high risk.

Proper 'flu can literally kill you, and most of you have never had it. It was just a cold. A bad one maybe, but "just" a cold - a cousin of the Influenza virus. Even the worse cold you ever, ever, ever had probably wasn't "proper 'flu". For those who really did have "proper 'flu" - I am sure they wouldn't wish it on even a mountain biker.

fenix

PhotoNic69 wrote:

Fenix wrote:

I think when I had a bad cold I was off work for a week. So to be off for two weeks after the jab sounds a lot worse.

FTFY ;-)

Proper flu is nasty. I get it about once every three years. I'm quite literally in bed wearing thermals, leggings, a fleece, duvet etc feeling freezing cold but sweating buckets with a temperature of 40+ !!! It takes a lot to get over it back to true fitness again. Since doing more cycling I tend to get it less. So that's all good then.

Cheeky bugger. This was proper flu. Same symptoms as you - was awful. I did think I'd had the flu before that - but proper flu is awful. Never before woken up with a belly button full of sweat. Which was nice....

I wasn't back to normal after two weeks - my first run two weeks later was 20 bpm higher than normal.

keef66

I've had hundreds of colds and a few nasty chest infections, but only flu makes you feel like you've been hit by a truck. This February my wife and I went down with it at the same time. 3 day thumping headaches, 2 days in bed sweating like Scousers in a Job Centre, all the time with aching joints and muscles, not eating anything, and as weak as newborns. 2 weeks before we started to feel remotely well again, and a souvenir nasty cough that persisted for a month.

You can't really confuse flu with a cold.

Secteur

keef66 wrote:

sweating like Scousers in a Job Centre,.

Brilliant!

So wrong, but just brilliant.

Stolen for future use!

haydenm

I can get one due to asthma, never bothered but I probably should

verylonglegs

keef66 wrote:

I've had hundreds of colds and a few nasty chest infections, but only flu makes you feel like you've been hit by a truck. This February my wife and I went down with it at the same time. 3 day thumping headaches, 2 days in bed sweating like Scousers in a Job Centre, all the time with aching joints and muscles, not eating anything, and as weak as newborns. 2 weeks before we started to feel remotely well again, and a souvenir nasty cough that persisted for a month.

You can't really confuse flu with a cold.

It shouldn't be possible but so many do. It's not helped with adverts for 'Colds and Flu' remedies that show someone taking a dose and then getting through a crucial meeting at work or a social event like nothing is wrong. I've had it twice, both occasions resulting in around 5 days in bed with a couple of weeks being well below par afterwards. Having said that the jab is offered at work but I've never taken them up on it yet.

pinno

I'm high risk but reacted so badly the last time I had it so I reckoned getting it would be no worse.
@Secteur: It's not a myth. I am immuno compromised and in people who have no functioning spleen, the anti-bodies in the immune system can see the vaccine as a threat and hence the adverse reaction.
I was fine until 5 years ago the vaccine became a combined one, since then it's hell.

Toss a coin time again for me.

Secteur

Pinno wrote:

I'm high risk but reacted so badly the last time I had it so I reckoned getting it would be no worse.
@Secteur: It's not a myth. I am immuno compromised and in people who have no functioning spleen, the anti-bodies in the immune system can see the vaccine as a threat and hence the adverse reaction.
I was fine until 5 years ago the vaccine became a combined one, since then it's hell.

Toss a coin time again for me.

Speaking as an expert Pinno, you are misinformed. Of course, I am assuming we both are talking about a non-live flu vaccine, which the "standard" UK flu jab is. Of course, there may be other factors in your case of which I am not aware, but all things being equal, you are wrong. Not meaning to be critical, by the way. I am expert in so few things in this life that I am well used to being put in my place !!

pinno

Secteur wrote:

Pinno wrote:

I'm high risk but reacted so badly the last time I had it so I reckoned getting it would be no worse.
@Secteur: It's not a myth. I am immuno compromised and in people who have no functioning spleen, the anti-bodies in the immune system can see the vaccine as a threat and hence the adverse reaction.
I was fine until 5 years ago the vaccine became a combined one, since then it's hell.

Toss a coin time again for me.

Speaking as an expert Pinno, you are misinformed. Of course, I am assuming we both are talking about a non-live flu vaccine, which the "standard" UK flu jab is. Of course, there may be other factors in your case of which I am not aware, but all things being equal, you are wrong. Not meaning to be critical, by the way. I am expert in so few things in this life that I am well used to being put in my place !!

Are you in pathology/haematology?

webboo

I've had one every year for the last few years. NHS staff it's free and you are encouraged to have as if you don't you could be seen as negligent if you get it and then go off sick.
Every year there is alway several staff who claim to have got flu from the jab. They are usually the ones who have to have time off when they stub their toe.

lesfirth

I am grasping the wooden chair I am sat on while I write this. I am well past pension age so my GP surgery bug me every year to have a jab ( for free ) but I decline their offer. If I had ever had flu I might have a different opinion but I never have . My policy is to keep away from doctors surgeries , they are full of people who are ill ( some might have flu!) so you never know what you might catch there. I dont know how the people who work there survive.

pinno

Secteur wrote:

Pinno wrote:

I'm high risk but reacted so badly the last time I had it so I reckoned getting it would be no worse.
@Secteur: It's not a myth. I am immuno compromised and in people who have no functioning spleen, the anti-bodies in the immune system can see the vaccine as a threat and hence the adverse reaction.
I was fine until 5 years ago the vaccine became a combined one, since then it's hell.

Toss a coin time again for me.

Speaking as an expert Pinno, you are misinformed. Of course, I am assuming we both are talking about a non-live flu vaccine, which the "standard" UK flu jab is. Of course, there may be other factors in your case of which I am not aware, but all things being equal, you are wrong. Not meaning to be critical, by the way. I am expert in so few things in this life that I am well used to being put in my place !!

The benefits of the vaccine is equivocal.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2775097/

"Unfortunately, no data exist to help resolve this difference, since most studies have only investigated the effect of a single dose given in one influenza season. No study has looked at the long-term risks or benefits of annual influenza vaccination in this immunosuppressed population."

You also said:

Secteur wrote:

Of course, there may be other factors in your case of which I am not aware...

That ^ is key and perhaps not for an open forum.

When I saw my haematologist post refusal, he reacted with indifference. Primarily because he commented about my very good lung function. Both my daughters and my OH have the vaccine.

webboo

lesfirth wrote:

I am grasping the wooden chair I am sat on while I write this. I am well past pension age so my GP surgery bug me every year to have a jab ( for free ) but I decline their offer. If I had ever had flu I might have a different opinion but I never have . My policy is to keep away from doctors surgeries , they are full of people who are ill ( some might have flu!) so you never know what you might catch there. I dont know how the people who work there survive.

By having a flu jab.
When you get to a certain age your body loses its ability to fight infection. So there for what may be shrugged off by a twenty year old, can kill you when you are 60 plus
It's your choice.

sniper68

48 and never had the flu.
We get the jab free at work but I always decline as I don't need it.I can't remember the last time I even had a cold.

capt_slog

Secteur wrote:

Myth: The Flu Jab Makes You Ill

.

This from the NHS website....

Can the flu jab cause flu?

No. The vaccine does not contain any live viruses, so it cannot cause flu. You may get a slight temperature and aching muscles for a couple of days afterwards, and your arm may feel a bit sore where you had the injection. Other reactions are rare, and flu jabs are very safe.

I realise that you can't get flu from the flu vaccine (and why not), but when people complain of 'illness' after the jab, isn't that the body's reaction to producing the immunity?

pinno

Capt Slog wrote:

Secteur wrote:

Myth: The Flu Jab Makes You Ill

.

This from the NHS website....

Can the flu jab cause flu?

No. The vaccine does not contain any live viruses, so it cannot cause flu. You may get a slight temperature and aching muscles for a couple of days afterwards, and your arm may feel a bit sore where you had the injection. Other reactions are rare, and flu jabs are very safe.

I realise that you can't get flu from the flu vaccine (and why not), but when people complain of 'illness' after the jab, isn't that the body's reaction to producing the immunity?

It's not all in my head.

chrisaonabike

I pay 12 quid for the jab every year at my local pharmacist.

I've had flu three times in my life, and every time it was dreadful. Five or six days bed-ridden, splitting headache, high temperature, sweating, shivering, unable to eat anything except the occasional bite of cracker or soup, just sip water. Followed by a week of thinking I was better, but if I tried to stand up, being so weak I could barely walk.

I've been having the jab for over 10 years now, haven't had flu since I started. I get an achy arm for a few hours, but otherwise not much in the way of adverse reaction to it.

The only thing I've ever had worse than flu was measles when I was 19. That was like flu but worse. The temperature was so high for so long that I got delirious, and thought I was literally going to die. Didn't leave the house for three weeks with that, I wasn't completely better for over a month.

As some have said, most people haven't had flu.

pinno

I have had flu once and it was dreadful.

Talking of delirious, I hallucinated the two times I had malaria. I'll never forget that. It was as vivid as anything and I can recall it at will.

plowmar

They Have the Flu jab?.

Man flu's the worsest.

awavey

Capt Slog wrote:

Secteur wrote:

Myth: The Flu Jab Makes You Ill

.

This from the NHS website....

Can the flu jab cause flu?

No. The vaccine does not contain any live viruses, so it cannot cause flu. You may get a slight temperature and aching muscles for a couple of days afterwards, and your arm may feel a bit sore where you had the injection. Other reactions are rare, and flu jabs are very safe.

I realise that you can't get flu from the flu vaccine (and why not), but when people complain of 'illness' after the jab, isn't that the body's reaction to producing the immunity?

yes, afaic it is, I know 4 people who've had it this year, and all 4 took a definite hit from it for a day or two,which the nurses administering the jab told them would be the case as well, before they felt back to normal.

They werent ill as such, they werent coughing or sneezing or showing other flu like symptons, they just felt rubbish and tired and lethargic and couldnt control their body temperature properly, which to me says their immune system was kicking in and doing what the purpose of having the flu jab is meant to do for them.

chrisaonabike

plowmar wrote:

... Man flu's the worsest.

... Says the guy that's never had flu