To not take my DCs for their flu vaccination?

[NickAngel]

I've been sent a letter inviting us to attend an appointment at the surgery for my DCs to have the flu vaccine.
They don't have any existing medical conditions and are both healthy.
Am I BU to decline the appointment?
Do they really need it?

HCP here and I'm having my 3 dc done. My local CCG is piloting vaccination for all children from 2 to 13 year olds. They did it last year too and it was the first time asthmatic ds1 hasn't needed steroids all winter. Dh gets one as he is asthmatic too and I get one free from my employer.

FFS, 'Big Pharma', really? And it's 'effective', not 'affective'. Climb out of your conspiracy hole.

I looked at the links posted by anotherdayanothersquabble and it clearly states that shedding of vaccine virus is very rare! And anyway if it's just the vaccine virus then the worst that can happen is the children shedding will just pass vaccine virus (I.e modified and unable to cause disease) to in contacts. No-one is actually going to get ill from this unless they have a severely compromised immune system... And they would probably be avoiding children as they are known virus factories! It is exactly the same with the canine KC vaccine, this warning is in the data sheet and in 15 years I have NEVER seen a case of a dog that got ill because an in contact was vaccinated. Drug companies have to put this stuff on data sheets even it's just a theoretical risk.

If you don't have the vaccine, and God forbid your DC get the flu and have to be hospitalised, will you accept the treatment?

Medical professional here. My whole family have the vaccine due to immuno compromised dh.
Flu can and does kill. The person next to you in the supermarket/ on the bus may be undergoing chemotherapy. Not all chemo patient's lose their hair or look particularly ill, you just don't know. Flu can kill them, their bodies just can't fight it.
If I was in charge of the country, anyone who refused the vaccine would have to pay for their treatment if they then contracted the illness. Including parents who refuse on behalf of their dc and whose dc then take up a hospital bed with complications from flu.

Eve - of course I will. However I have been offered the flu vaccine every year the last 30 as mild asthmatic and haven't had the vaccine. I feel that would have been 30 years of vaccine wasted as I don't really need it. Iv never had flu despite no vaccine. So if the time comes I think it's better to get treatment once, than unknown number of vaccines for something that might not happen. The chances are most self treat flu anyway with rest/ fluids for a week or so.