Fed up of hearing about the flu

Given the vaccine is only 30% effective, why would anyone bother?

North London. I called our local chemist who said they have stock but we have to wait till next week due to limited appts.

People scare mongering at usual. Take no notice! I have health anxiety and I'm switching off from all the idiots hyping it all up. These germs don't just suddenly appear in winter. They are with us all year round, every year. How many times have you got sick this year? I bet not much.

I've worked as a nurse within the NHS for over 16 years and this year is the worst I've seen the system overwhelmed by seasonal flu, and as rightly said in other comments it's happened a lot earlier than normal.

Community nurses are on red alert to assist the ambulance service with outstanding calls.

The system is completely on its knees. I say its rightly so this is the main news coverage day after day.

When the adult children no longer "need" you. What do other mums do? Im literally so lonely and feeling lost. Feeling hurt that no on listens to me or even "sees me" . No one thinks to see what my wishes are or even seems to care about me. Feeling lost and do not know who I am anymore. Has anyone else experienced this. I dont feel wanted or loved at all anymore.

That's how I read it

Perhaps that poster (and I haven't read the rest of their post so I'm guessing) meant that the ones with vaccines are only a few out of many more without.

But there are tons of viruses with no vaccines - flue, covid, rsv are only a few of many @TempestTost

How very odd. I've been vaccinated against all of these this year.

What are you on about?

Bully for you then..let's hope you don't get it this year because you've seen all the warnings ffs ..let's hope you're not immune compromised and have nothing to worry about..get back to your knitting and your easy life and put your blinkers back on please

Are you saying, hand on heart, that you are not seeing an unfolding disaster in your area? Because every medic I know is saying things are shaping up to be the worst winter on record - are you saying they are wrong? That our local hospital is cancelling non urgent surgery for fun? That people are pretending to be ill on life support?

If you are not clinical staff do you even know what is happening on the ground?

How/where did you get vaccine appointments? They’re nowhere to be found round where I live.

Data collection started in 2021.

No apparently no cases reported in 2020

We have a young adult family member on life support with flu, pneumonia and sepsis. It's not scaremongering it's very real.

I work for the NHS (non clinical) and there is a winter crisis every year. Wouldn't trust a word Wes Streeting says, think he is using scare tactics in the hope it will make Drs call off their strike next week. Flu is awful and do think vulnerable people should get the jab.

This strain of flu really is something else. My SIL and niece are still struggling 6 weeks after contracting it. My father passed away within 3 days of contracting it.

You may think it's just the same as every year, but from what I've seen, it's really not. It's dangerous for those who are vulnerable and debilitating for those who are healthy.

I'm not sure it is. Yes there are well reported "crises" every year, but we haven't had a bad flu year for a while.

The reason they need to cover it is so that as many people as possible are aware of the risk and change their behaviours! You are disagreeing with public health messaging which will save lives.
Your post is ridiculous.

Yes me too - it’s the same every year tho !

That's quite a different argument from saying that levels haven't changed that much and that publicity of abnormally high levels of influenza is "scaremongering".

I'm not criticising health care professionals, I am criticising the organisation of the NHS and the media. They are telling people to get the vacancies but people are struggling to get them. The media report that the NHS is at breaking point every single year.

I remember on Millennium Eve we were all flu-ridden in our house.

Looking back I think it was the winter of 2000 2001 The Australian flu mutated, Christmas and New year was wiped out for many. Our village hall was having a big bash lots of families bought tickets. They had to cancel the event in the end organisers etc were flat out in bed. We dodged it because I was in early pregnancy and very poorly so had a quiet Christmas and New year. No parties Etc.

I must look it up.

Australia's just had the worst flu season in history. Levels fluctuate quite significantly based on the strain and the southern hemisphere winter is a good indicator for what we're likely to experience (mutations aside).

Notifiable cases of influenza were 11% higher in 2025 than in 2024. It started and escalated earlier in the winter than usual - similar to the pattern we're seeing here. However, that strain has since acquired seven new mutations to create subclade K of H3N2 - which seem to help it spread faster, and is not as well matched to this year's vaccine.

Sorry to bring facts to the table - I know it's inconvenient. But not all flu seasons are created equal and criticising the health service for recognising and acting on that is illogical.