Schools closing for flu

[Busydoingsomething]

A school near me has partially closed due to staff shortages. Another has cancelled all performances. Some of the children will have been vaccinated but I suspect, lots of the staff won’t have been. I was listening to 2 people today, on the train, discussing whether school staff should be vaccinated, to prevent the staff being off and impacting on education. Wondering if this would be a good move.

The nasal spray is a better product than the jab, it works in 2 ways.

It’s not a competition. But unless you have taught, you cannot possibly comprehend the physical and mental impact of it.

I taught for over a decade. I also have worked and do work outside of education and it is nothing.

I would imagine front line NHS may be similarly intense, but I don’t know, because I haven’t done it.

Have you taught in a UK school in the last decade, @cakebreak?

You get so.much pressure to send them in whatever. And get into bother for keeping them off. Of course parents are going to send kids in with coughs and colds.

While we have a work culture that doesn't enable staying home yourself never mind keeping your kids home, it's utterly pointless to keep having that conversation.

"Only 40% of children age 5-14 years have had the vaccine despite it being free and provided at school."

Plenty of people now think we should rely on our immune system and hybrid immunity and are anti jab. Part of " living with it" is accepting that illness will be more common, and attendance lower ..

Was thinking vaccinations would save so much ££ and distress not to mention pressure on the nhs. Seems a false economy not to offer it. Loads of people are rocking up to a&e with flu probably spreading the virus further. I paid £20 for a vax but perhaps it should be offered free to a lot of people. The pharmacist said this year the prevalence is 5x that of previous years 😳

Children are always offered the flu vaccine at school.

I was a teacher from 1988 to retirement last year. The first time I was offered a flu jab was during covid. After that year, I only got one when I was in an independent school.

I work for the LA going in and out of schools supporting kids and staff. There have been a lot of supply in the schools covering or classing in smaller schools lumped together to cover without supply. And then the staff in the schools left were still unwell.

I was offered a free jab at the LA. A big bus came and frontline staff were offered it first and then the admin non customer facing staff were told they could have it if there was any left. However I already get it free at my GP. I used to work in a special school and even well before Covid we were advised to get flu jab to protect our very vulnerable children who live with life limiting conditions and some who are on end of life care. GP surgery has been happy to give me every year. Got Covid when we needed it but not eligible for that now.

Some of the school staff I’ve worked with in different school have said they aren’t eligible. These are quite rural schools as well so often quite far to get to nearest pharmacy.

I caught something last week - probably from one of my many school visits - but it was thankfully short lived. None of my schools have had to close yet but many are struggling.

Our emergency services aren’t vaccinated! My husband has a desk job mainly WFH in the civil service but he got one.
My DD is 6, cancelled vaccinations at school last week, so she obviously caught it this week, she’s really unwell 🙁 half her class are off.

My school offer to get a nurse to come and do the jab but staff have to pay for it which has put lots off, most haven’t had it. People are also worried about feeling poorly after it so that’s put people off too. I remember being really unwell after one of the covid vaccines. It was awful and I was off work for almost a week.

Doesn’t matter if they are vaccinated I was & I caught this strain of flu & my god I’ve been ill for 8 weeks now & I mean ill full blown flu symptoms just walking to the loo has left me exhausted people are trivialising this but I’m seriously concerned it’s awful heaven help the elderly & youngsters is all I can say x

We haven’t taken the flu vaccine this year because a week after it last year both mine had flu which passed to us. It can’t be a coincidence that they start giving out a live vaccine to children and everyone starts getting flu. The second reason being that the school offered this on the 5th December and my daughter was unwell and missed this day anyway. I’m hoping the natural immunity we have will see us through this winter.

What’s wrong with getting a fly jab in the October break?

@Rainbowbeginings

"It can’t be a coincidence that they start giving out a live vaccine to children and everyone starts getting flu"

However it can be a coincidence that people start getting flu as the winter outbreak ramps up in winter, and that's when people start getting flu

And that's also the time when people start paying attention and getting vaccinated.

I had mine in October.

When did you expect the winter flu outbreak to start?

Some people are so fucking stupid. A vaccination does NOT stop you getting a disease and it doesn't mean you will live forever. It just means your body has been given the chance to prepare defenses against hostile microorganisms.
You can have a flu jab and still die of flu. The jab didn't cause it, it just didn't prevent it, sadly. The ingredients of the vaccine are not harmful.

That’s not true. The current flu vaccine does provide protection against this strain.
You can still get flu after a vaccine but it definitely won’t be as severe.

Are you for real? Thousands of people die from 'just flu' every year, and it's looking like a whole lot more than usual might die this year. And before anybody dashes to say, 'yes but it's just old people', as though old people are worthless, it is NOT just old people who die from it. Its small babies, anybody immunocompromised due to cancer treatment for example, or in the case of my Dad, people who have lung conditions. I don't want my Dad to get flu and end up in hospital, as he might never come out.

I work for a blue light service…occasionally we got a free jab. However since austerity and austerity mark 2 from Labour - no chance.

By "no good" I meant it's no good if you don't eat gelatine, not that it doesnt work. If you dont eat egg then you need to ask for the vegan flu shot.

It doesn’t surprise me at all. I do a bit of primary supply teaching and it’s crazy at the moment. And when you get there, half the kids are off as well.

First of all it's not yours nor anyone else's place whatsoever to tell someone else what they should put in their body. Secondly, do u think flu vaccine prevents current flu? So if everyone took the vaccine there'd be no flu? Thirdly, this notion of shitting down things was introduced and encouraged during covid, if u encouraged it then u can't complain about it now

I haven't read TFT but isn't the jab only about 35% effective?

On the other hand, I can't believe people are too tight to pay for it.. we pay for attention to hair, teeth etc, surely jabs are more important?

I’m shocked at these teachers claiming only half their students took up the vaccination!…. My friends daughter never had the vaccine because it contains meat products and of a class of 30 she was the only child who didn’t have it throughout the whole of primary.
No Idea why the nurses dishing out the vaccine to the kids can’t also jab the teachers at the same time. .. maybe that would put pressure on teachers to have it though which wouldn’t be fair.

It was always offered in school when I was a teacher. I guess it’s a sign of increasing cutbacks in education that it’s not universal.
All public facing key workers should be offered it free IMHO