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.

I imagine take up varies significantly by area - I believe take up of the flu vaccine is correlated fairly strongly with socioeconomic group.

Again, your own choice. I’m 26 and I’ve been getting it since I was 18, after my niece was born premature.

I got my flu vaccine a month ago. my schools are doing vaccines for staff. I have a virus right now though which is pretty grotty.

My sons school vaccine in next week!

The vaccine this year isnt that affective, its reducing hospital admissions to a point, but there is a lot of ground between hospital admissions and being well enough to teach a class.

Where are you getting this data from?

This isn’t true. The current strain is covered by this year’s vaccine. What seems to have happened is that flu has started earlier than usual and has got ahead of the vaccination programme, meaning that many people who would have got vaccinated have been caught out and now have flu.
The vaccine is pretty effective in children, less so in adults but again that’s normal and it’s the only defence we have against a nasty virus that evry winter kills old and young alike.

I work in a school and again im off ill . It really upsets me that parents drop there ill children off in the morning , saying there full of cold but had calpol and should be OK! If only it was more common for parents to keep ill children at home , .I know people have to work and childcare is difficult but teachers and teaching assistants have to work and have families as well . Another problem is if you are unwell you feel underpressure to battle through as I did yesterday and feel guilty for spreading my germs . A simple stay at home if unwell would help loads . Now I have another Christmas of being unwell and so will my family

BBC say over 2000 hospitalized with flu and number expected to double. It’s a new mutation of the flu so vaccination might alleviate symptoms but won’t prevent you from getting it.

Can confirm that in the case of, I’m guessing, the mutated flu, that this absolutely is not the case. I had a full on fever for over a week. It’s day 18 and I still feel terrible. I had my flu vaccine back in late October.

The would still get the flu if vaccinated but hopefully not land in hospital

I was vaccinated late October and have had flu and been the illest I’ve ever been. It’s fine, I’m late 30s and haven’t been hospitalised, but what you’re saying does not tally with my experience nor what I’ve read about the mutated strain not covered by this year’s vaccine

You still get the flu when vaccinated but hopefully not as bad

@JingsMahBucket if I could afford it then I definitely would. It's not due to laziness, it's due to cost.
Dh was made redundant over 8 months ago, he's been looking for work ever since, we live on UC and my part time TA wage, if I had a spare £15 to get it then I would. We can't even afford to pay our bills, mortgage and food so I can't afford to spend £15 on me as we just don't have it.
Not everyone circumstances are the same, £15 may be a drop in the ocean for some, but not for everyone.

My children’s very large secondary school isn’t on the school flu immunisation rounds until next week - far too late. Update is low according to my children too. They’ve always had it but say very few others from their forms have and I would assume that’s representative of the whole school population. I’ve paid to get one the last few years but this year haven’t been able to get a slot at the places that I’ve managed to in the past. Not sure if they’ve been told to hold back supplies for those eligible for free ones maybe?

Exactly, impossible to get any slots or find a pharmacy with stock. I’m happy to pay but where is the vaccine

This.
People have nor problem booking pedi and mani, botox, self tanning, Brazilian wax, har extensions. How is it so hard to pop into the nearest pharmacy and pay a few quid for a vaccine?

Our trust has started paying for it. It's the only perk they do pay for.

We have to book it and go to a pharmacy for the jab though. Normally I pay for it myself because the trust doesn't email until mid October when lots of appointments are already booked up and it's harder to get a slot out of work hours.

A lot of pharmacies round here offer just mornings, or 3 week days, but no weekends so that can be a barrier. A friend in another school said staff get vaccinated when the pupils do, which is a great idea.

I'd estimate 90% of pupils took up the nasal spray vaccination. Touch wood no staff absence so far and normals levels for pupils.

That’s terrible and then it will take 2 weeks for the vaccine to actually work

I live in a semi rural, deprived, ex- mining town in the midlands and while we have almost nothing else, we are awash with vaccine. I took my older dc to Asda (£15) and their availability on their appointments system was close to 100% and they are open weekends and evenings (until 9pm). DH and MIL both got next day appointments at different pharmacies, although these were daytime (lots of people work weekends and evenings - not everyone with daytime availability is workshy). The majority of people who want a vaccine will be able to get to an Asda (or Tesco or boots) before 9pm or at the weekend or half term or a pharmacy (most open until 6) and it’s really, really common for working people who live rurally to drive and own a car. People either actively don’t want it or they don’t want it enough to go get it.

Well of course it’s out of stock now! They’ve been vaccinating since the start of September.

Without testing how are we certain this isn’t a massive Covid surge? It’s certainly sounding like one- especially the severity of symptoms I’m hearing of from others.

It would be useful if you could quote a reliable source. According the BBC the prevalent virus is a new mutated type.

In previous years, I remember the standard being that the vaccine is based on trying to predict the subsequent strains and not being able to predict the exact strain.
I always read that an attack is likely to be milder if the jab is taken but it would be good to have actual live data in unvaccinated vs vaccinated for hospital admissions. Does anyone know if this is available and where?

I must say I find it really odd to hear about NHS staff either neglecting to vaccinate themselves or outright refusing. Why? Why on earth wouldn’t you get a flu jab? No doubt there are many non-medical people who’ve never had flu and don’t realise how awful it is so don’t bother, but surely medical people must know all about it and see the worst consequences.

As a patient I find it frightening to think I may be going to hospital appointments etc and being treated by unvaccinated staff.

They are literally testing.

Is this just an exercise in Manufacturing Consent for vaccine mandates? Seen it all in Covid. I'm sure it's not of course, but one can't help but feel skeptical now.

Maybe medical professionals know more about this than you do