Fed up of hearing about the flu

I think we can take action.

The media for all the hyperbole must do their job this time. People need to know this is real, and take careful decisions.

The elderly need to stay away from busy places, we mustn’t visit if we have sick children for example. Being sensible and pragmatic would be helpful. I can’t stand the idea of Covid restrictions, but I am inclined to think we are in a worse position now than in 2020 or 2021 tbf.

I am seriously fit, how did I end up so ill? I honestly don’t know. It scares the shit out of me.

He is 29 years old by the way,

yes the OP is being unreasonable. Have so many people off sick Some who have come in and tried but had to be sent home. One now has pneumonia and still trying to come to work as zero hour contract!

I'm allergic to the vaccine but I wear an n95 mask when I go out in company. I think it's just the right thing to do when the hospitals are struggling like that.

I don't think so!

Yes. You turn up because you are either on a

• a zero hours contact so you don't get paid
• or you go to work sick because you feel guilty you are letting everyone down and you do not have a strong leadership value of you being well is more important than being there and they support do not tell you how much you absence is having a huge detrimental impact on the team.

I agree Op.

The main issue is that theres no way of knowing who will get sick even in workplace where obviously ill people have been spreading germs. Mild flu, Covid or just a cold? Who knows but far from everyone gets ill at work.
Flu vaccinations can make you feel rough and they don’t work against all strains.
My poor elderly parents get a bad chest infection and serious cold/ flu symptoms most years now ,despite having the flu jab, living fairly remotely and being outside a lot.

Well good for you, but what does that have to do with the topic?

I've never had the flu, or at least not symptomatically. I'm not currently pregnant but have 3 DCs.

Do I win?

Why? Can you make that make sense for me?

Hi

There are 10 staff members off with this. Some came in and tried to work. Temperature, aching with coughs. You always have to be present, don't be off sick that makes you a better person. Some people on zero contracts they do not get paid It's called "presentationism" even though you are ill. How great are you for turning up, guilt of not being there because you muddle through? Spread it to everyone else now 10 off and one hospitalised with pneumonia and one at at home very ill. Not an aged workforce young. Be careful what you say...

I'm just going to point out that if hospitals are overwhelmed with flu patients, that has a knock on effect on other patients.

I work in a school and it's been knocking kids and staff out for a few weeks. Supply has been insane. I hate, hate, hate being ill, so I got a jab back in October. And that felt fairly late in terms of protection from the diseases 2000 kids bring. Or is it 4000, if I look at my kids' exposure too?

I'd rather risk discomfort from a vaccine than catch flu and have it knock me out for ages. Because let's face it, even if the flu lasts a week, you're still not able to get straight back to the gym are you?

I was going to suggest the same. We went to a concert during covid and didn't get ill. We had the FFP2 masks.

That really does sound more like COVID.

I am going to start wearing masks on the train again when I go to work. I don't want flu (or COVID) for Christmas. Masks might not be the universal panacea but might help to avoid it when someone starts spluttering on the train because their employers are stupid and have a RTO policy even if you are ill.

Because it doesn't always work. People think "oh well it won't work anyway if they've got the wrong strain" but they'll still have a couple of days of feeling under the weather. Ok in the scheme of things it's better to have the vaccine but if it doesn't work and you're ill anyway, you'd wonder why you bothered. I don't know if it's like the covid vaccine and makes it less bad if you get it.

Also, most people don't qualify for one, so you've got to go looking. Even my husband's employer who have always got a nurse to do them in-house, have stopped that now. In fact, that could be the reason there are more people in hospital this year, because fewer people were eligible and employers aren't providing it to their employees. My DH was eligible before on the NHS as well but isn't now. He hasn't had got younger ;)

If you actually take notice of what's being said it's a different strain to what the flu jab protects against. Me and DD are having our jabs and COVID jabs tomorrow. We are being advised to go back to wearing masks. I've heard of people coughing to the point of coughing up blood. blood. The hospitals are overwhelmed.

I suspect a lot of the media attention is due to the doctors strike, they want people to get vaccinated as the doctors strike means they can’t cope.

i got something a couple of weeks ago, sore throat, runny nose etc, took about 8 days to pass, was taking dual nurofen and paracetamol, and sucking on strepsils. Don’t know if it was flu or covid, and It this flu is a variation of covid, but I was fully functioning throughout. And I’m hoping that’s no given me some immunity,

My husband had it a few weeks ago. He was bedbound for 2 full weeks and properly ill. More than once I thought I was going to have to take him to hospital. He's still not fully well even now, it's been three weeks since he was able to get out of bed, not have a raging temperature and go about his normal life but he has a horrible hacking cough he can't shift and absolutely no energy. The slightest exertion wipes him out. He's lost a ton of weight and it's like he's aged ten years.

The signs were always there that flu was going to be nasty this year as Australia had a bad season. Bed occupancy was already really high in November and will be a real problem pretty soon. The issue really is we don’t have enough acute beds in this country. There is no flex at all when things hit the fan (as will be noted in the Covid inquiry reports). Beds are run too hot because politicians aren’t willing to put the funding in place to open more. Everyone is talking about shifting care into the community which is lovely but in the short term doesn’t fix the fact there aren’t enough beds.

We can all say “It won’t happen to me because I don’t have any underlying conditions,” until it does, and the underlying condition you didn’t know you had is diagnosed as a result.

I caught the flu in 2016 which led to the diagnosis of the underlying heart condition I have had since birth but had no awareness of. But not before the flu had damaged the bit of my heart which wasn’t already compromised, caused me to have sepsis and nearly die.

And before that I thought I was healthy, walked for miles, swam for miles, exercised regularly, would never have known.

This year I had a heart transplant.

Masks in many countries are standard. Why people have such an issue with wearing them is bizarre.

Handwashing should be standard. I find it baffling that people need to be told they should be washing their hands. Seriously.

If people lived more hygienically in the first place they wouldn’t have to start. And perhaps these illnesses would be less prevalent.

Let me guess, you don't believe in getting vaccinated....

I’m thrilled to share that I haven’t heard a single thing about it outside of mumsnet because I don’t watch the depressing, draining, miserable and propoganda-pushing news 😍 nor do I know of anyone who’s been ill! Fabulous.

Ventilating really helps. If you can, even just a few minutes with a window open front and back to change the air helps.

You won't lose as much heat as you might think doing that, either, just some of the warm air. The body of the house and everything in it stays warm, so the fresh air you've brought in also warms up quite quickly.

@SpoonBaloon "Of course flu is going to kill people, duh! It needs to get off the news so we can hear more coverage about important issues like Love Island and Taylor Swift!"