To say no to covid vaccine for DS?

You seem to be implying that there is a relationship between the flu vaccine and getting ill twice quickly afterwards OP? What is your thinking? Are you thinking it just didn’t provide protection, so what’s the point or that it somehow depleted the immune system?

If the former then chances are it wasn’t flu that was contracted anyway. You would really know if you have proper flu and not a cold. The flu vaccine will not provide any protection against a cold.
If the latter a more likely explanation is that the flu vaccine was administered at the time of year were colds start circulating in earnest again, so it was just a coincidence and you would have had them anyway.

Everyone in my family who has been offered covid or flu vaccines either from the NHs or via work has taken them up. None of us wish to have covid, long covid or flu. The risk has been assessed by scientists who know what they are talking about and weighed up against the cost to the public purse and they’ve come down on the side of us being vaccinated. I am very much going to listen to the people who know far more about this than I do.

No... if I had a choice when they were rolled out I wouldn't have one. The only reason I took was to be able to travel to my dying mother, otherwise I would've stayed put. I take flu vaccine but not Covid. The potential risk or blood clot in my brain it's just too much for me to handle mentally.

I am very very pro-vaccine so am biased.

however another thing to think about is if he does get more unwell than he has done previously, what is your work situation like? Can you afford to take extra time off to care for him? How do you feel about missed school? (This is part of my thinking re the chicken pox vaccine - my little one is unlikely to be seriously unwell but as a solo parent it would be difficult to miss so much work/school)

He's a 10 year old, not a baby.

And some reasons would help.

This new variant sounds like a nasty one, especially for the vulnerable. Apparently you feel unwell and then once you think you are getting better, it comes back for a second, nastier go. I don't know if the most current vaccine offers cover for it though or if the variant appeared after it was manufactured. It is maybe worth finding out whether this variant is as bad as what the newsfeeds are suggesting (it could just br scaremongering but then again, it might not) and whether docs are expecting the latest vaccine to be effective against it.

HI, well interesting enough (I think!) I had this dilemma this week for my DS14. I am offered both flu and covid owing to meds for longterm autoimmune disease. DS was offered because of his "winter wheeze" which he had as a child and then again triggered c.2 1/2 years ago after covid. Hasn't needed the inhalers/wheezed for about 18 months - 2yrs. We have looked into the pros and cons and decided against him having it as fit young teens don't generally become ill with covid but he is in cohort for possible heart side effects from the jab.
I would definitely give him the flu vaccine - and go for the jab over the live nasal one.
Covid one is up to you both obviously but I agree it is a difficult decision.

I understand that however children aged 10 with mild asthma are not getting ‘awful outcomes’ from any of the variants past or present so it seems a bit of a leap.

People attribute a lot to the vaccine when they also don't know, why is one deemed more credible than the other? All vaccines have side effects and sadly with a global roll out of this scale its not surprising their were some deaths and serious adverse affects, but the attribution of any condition by some is wild and not based in any reality. It's like the social media scientists who keep talking about the increase in cancers in young people; they negate to say/are too research illiterate to mention and acknowledge that the data was collected for a period that ended in 2019- before covid or vaccines. The truth is somewhere in between, of course adverse reactions are real, but also of course not every medical issue is related just because someone had a vaccine.

Agree with RunnerDown and some other posters saying that you have to make that risk/benefit assessment.

The risk/benefit ratio for COVID vaccination in young boys and men is less clear than other age groups because of things like myocarditis. That is well documented now. However, when you add co-morbidities into the mix including asthma the benefit of vaccination outweighs the risk. Yes there is a risk and you are hearing about some of that in this thread. But there is a benefit.

The decision is hard in boys of this age group but Covid in individuals with asthma can be very serious, despite having Covid before.

"nothing to do with the jab".

You cannot make that assertion. You are not in a position to know.

Leaving aside the covid jab for a minute.

what do you mean your son took ill several weeks after the flu jab? Took ill how? and how exactly do you know that’s linked to the flu jab ?

If you had advanced uterine cancer in 2023, it was almost certainly already present when you had the covid jab in 2022 haemorrhaging is a symptom of uterine cancer. Just one of those unfortunate things in life nothing to do with the jab, good luck with the treatment.

Helpful

You are getting responses based on posters own biases here. No- one has any evidence for their opinions. It’s all anecdotal.And mostly from people with no medical background .
It is a difficult decision to make but I definitely wouldn’t make it on the basis of emotive posts pasted here.

No.

Out of interest, care to expand?

Do not do this. I have a serious, lifelong autoimmune condition from the covid vaccine

He should have the flu and covid jabs. Up to you obviously but he is at risk from getting serious chest infections from either and he has already been hospitalised because of that.

I work in pharma, please do not give your baby the Covid jab.

When you say 'taken unwell within weeks of having the flu vaccine' what do you actually mean?

I have asthma, every single time I get flu I'm off work for weeks and needing steroids. And my asthma isn't even that bad. No way would I miss a flu vaccine.

Kids get lots of viruses. If he was unwell weeks after getting the flu vaccine, are you sure you aren't blaming the vaccine for something that was nothing to do with it?

How someone responds to one variant isn't indicative of how they will respond to another.

No you're not being unreasonable at all. If you don't want to then don't.

Your child has a known weakness why wouldn't you protect him?