Single mums should be offered a free flu jab?

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but : flu can actually be mild or even asymptomatic. The “it’s not flu if you can get out of bed” mantra is totally wrong. Flu is a family of viruses which can be quite serious but can also cause mild sniffles and most people will not realise they’ve got it and think it’s just a cold. So op might well have had mild flu. Unless she’s getting tested for it (which no one does really? ) we’ll never know.

Sorry to nitpick, but if you were well enough to get out of bed to see to your cat you could have picked up the £20…

I do sympathise, I’ve been that sick myself with what was probably flu, and more recently with definitely covid and I live alone and have a dog so can understand forcing yourself out of bed for the bathroom, food and basic animal care.

I suppose it’s confirmation bias really because the people who’ve had flu mildly and could carry on with daily life would probably have just thought it was a cold.

OP, I do hope you feel better soon.

It's not true though. The way to tell the difference between cold and flu is to send a swab to a lab.

The committee who makes the recommendations for who is eligible for vaccines on the NHS each year is the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. They have a specialist sub committee on influenza. I confess that on a quick Google I couldn’t find their evidence and reasoning for not offering it to healthy children aged 6 months to 2 years, but it will be based on scientific evidence and a cost benefit analysis.

There’s a wealth of information online published by the JCVI, including the minutes of all their meetings, if you’re really interested (it’s quite a rabbit hole):

https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/joint-committee-on-vaccination-and-immunisation

Someone asked how you know the difference between a cold and flu.

Yes you are overthinking it.

Around 2002 I had 'flu and lived on my own and believe me I was so ill and delirious I thought I was dying and in my mind I was planning on having my ashes scattered in Nepal because I knew I would never visit there! I was boiling hot but my teeth were chattering. I crawled to the bathroom, didn't wash for a week and had to force myself to get out of bed where day could have been night and vice versa to get a drink, eat a piece of toast and see to my cat.

On the other hand when I got covid I had a runny nose and a slight cough and I had been vaccinated.

No why on earth should they?

Having the flu jab will not help with a cold.

You can't think of any potential consequences and costs stemming from a small baby's primary carer being unable to care for them properly? Or knock-on impact in terms of stress/impact on household finances and consequent harm to the child's welfare and development? What about child neglect/eviction/food poverty? When families are in a precarious position, it can take surprisingly little to tip them over the edge.

We cross posted, @Journeyintomelody.

2 and 3 year olds get the vaccine as standard. Under 2s get it if they have a health condition, but not as standard; as it’s not particularly effective in younger ages, it seems; and flu isn’t particularly prevalent in younger children.

Parents don’t get it by default. Pregnant women do; to pass on some immunity to newborns.

I think under 2 year olds can be vaccinated but it has to be the injection; not the nasal spray. I think my sons was done when he had his 2 year old jabs.

Also, I may be overthinking this, £20 is worth different things to different people. The poor woman I spoke to at the soup kitchen the other day who has £10 to feed herself for a fortnight and had hauled herself out of her sick bed with at the very least a heavy cold just to she could get a free meal, would be much more motivated to pick up £20, whereas my millionaire boss probably wouldn’t break stride for a £20 note even if mildly unwell.

Rubbish - as with most viruses people get it with a range of severity. The only way to know you have flu is to be tested for it.

There is a £20 note on the floor. If you have a cold you will pick it up. If you have 'flu you can't be arsed to pick it up because you feel so unwell.

New mums aren't offered a flu jab because they are not clinically vulnerable whereas pregnant women are. It's that simple.

An illness being inconvenient for you is not a reason for the NHS to give you free vaccinations, it's a reason to pay for it yourself.

If you work, have you checked if your employer will reimburse you? I only found out recently my employer will reimburse up to £20 as does my husband's, public sector. I guess the benefit to them being less sick days (and spreading).

I have got Hashimotos which is also an autoimmune illness. That by itself doesn’t qualify someone for a flu jab. It depends on the treatment I believe.

Fortunately I work in a patient facing role in the NHS so I get annual flu and Covid jabs that way.

Because the OP specifically stated single Moms should get it for free.

I'm ignorant though, what is the cost of picking up the pieces of single Moms having the flu and being unable to cope compared to the cost of giving the flu jab free?

There is a government committee who looks into all this every year. If it was cheaper to give lone parents (or any other demographic unlikely to be made very seriously ill by the flu) the jab than not to, that would be the recommendation. It isn’t, I imagine because parents are likely on the whole to be young and healthy enough (barring other conditions which might then make them eligible on the basis of those conditions) that they are unlikely to put pressure on the NHS by becoming dangerously sick. And the “pieces that get picked up” will either be done so by an unwell parent soldiering on somehow, or by informal networks of support - it must be rare that there’s any cost to the state of a parent being unwell with flu or any other common illness.