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AIBU?

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Original poster

Why are all children being immunised against flu?

383 replies

MiniChedda · 13/10/2016 21:29

I am curious about this, my y1 DC is due to get it at school next week.

DD had flu but it was no worse than a sickness bug.

Wouldn't it be better to give the meningitis vaccine instead as it's so much more serious?

OP posts:
CPtart · 14/10/2016 20:35

m0ther of dragons the nasal spray fluenz for children, IS a live vaccine

ReallyTired · 14/10/2016 22:06

My year three daughter is seven years old. She isn't in a vulnerable group. Children who are a couple of months older are not being vaccinated.

Most people do not even need to visit the gp if they catch flu. People's bodies usually manage to fight it off. Certainly it's an unpleasant couple of weeks.

If we had a situation like 1918 then would be a stronger case for mass vaccination.

Shurelyshomemistake · 14/10/2016 22:10

But how do you know we're not going to have a situation like 1918??

Of course most people fight it off.

But again: statistics? What is the fatality rate and complication rate for flu? How does the compare statistically with the complication rate from vaccination?

Girliefriendlikesflowers · 14/10/2016 22:11

I feel like my posts are invisible on here Sad

Oh well, if my posts make one person reconsider vaccinating their child it was worth me pouring my heart out.

Matchingbluesocks · 14/10/2016 22:11

Its not actually about the children getting flu though is it? It's about them passing it onto more vulnerable people such as their grandparents

Dawndonnaagain · 14/10/2016 22:21

If we had a situation like 1918 then would be a stronger case for mass vaccination.
Perhaps we don't because we vaccinate.

LyndaNotLinda · 14/10/2016 22:31

My local pharmacy does flu jabs for £10. Worth getting in touch with yours if your child is either side of the cut off and you'd like them vaccinated

StStrattersOfMN · 14/10/2016 22:36

Girlie lovely, you won't get an acknowledgement, I didn't get one despite my heartfelt plea pages and pages ago.

Maybe hildred has a point,b you can't cure stupid.

Natsku · 14/10/2016 22:37

Anti-vaxxers avoid real life examples like yours girlie because they can't argue against them. So sorry your daughter and you went through that.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 14/10/2016 22:43

I think that point has been proved many a time on vaccination threads. I don't think any anti-vaxxer is going to have their minds changed by an internet thread. The best we can do is to prevent the stupidity from spreading to others who might read it.

expatinscotland · 14/10/2016 22:46

Scotland offers the vaccine to all primary school children. My two will have it and when DD2 starts secondary school next year I'll buy it at Boots for her and me, too.

I still remember how awful I felt when I had that flu at 25. Fucking pneumonia frightened me so much.

My paternal grandmother survived Spanish Flu. Her healthy, 21-year-old husband and their 2-year-old daughter did not.

chattygranny · 14/10/2016 22:55

I'm surprised to see several PPs saying they work in hospitals where some staff refuse the VAX. So is it only staff in direct contact with vulnerable patients who are required to have it? My DC works in paediatric oncology and has to have it every year but I guess is always with children with compromised immunity. I think everyone who works in a health environment should have to have a very good reason not to have it.

PussCatTheGoldfish · 14/10/2016 23:07

I paid to have my jab at tescos as i do each year. I had a strain of flu when I was 21 which left me delirious for a week, bed bound or 3 weeks and off work for 6 weeks. I lost 2 stone and was skinny before I was ill. It was awful.

Both my DC will have the nasal vaccine.
MIL is elderly and unwell. I don't want the DC to get unwell. And DD2 had pneumonia last year. All pretty good reasons to have it imo.

Lynnm63 · 14/10/2016 23:15

All of us who thankfully managed to survive flu have had our personal stories ignored because they don't fit the anti vaxxers narrative. They have bullshit anecdotes from a friend of a friend internet conspiracy twaddle whereas we are relaying actual real life factual personal experience.

Justaboy · 14/10/2016 23:42

expatinscotland That was the Spanish flu aright. Most Flu takes the elderly and very young but that one worked in a different way it affected the young and Healthy! Why?, its because it caused a "cytokine storm" that's where the bodies defence systems are sent into overdrive and end up attacking the body so the younger fitter ones were very badly affected as they had stronger immune systems some people died within a couple of days of being infected.

They just didn't understand it it was very contagious hence the 50 odd million who died:(

PamDooveOrangeJoof · 15/10/2016 00:08

Girliefriendlikesflowers - don't take it personally the story of my son being in intensive care was completely invisible too. Sorry to hear about your daughter. Terrifying isn't it.

mathanxiety · 15/10/2016 04:35

RN: Yes, I agree totally actually. I think that unless people are very poorly or very immunosuppressed, our bodies do a really good job at fighting viruses."
RN then carries on doing the annual asthma assessment.
She is the only asthma nurse at the clinic and is very up on all things asthma related.

I would respond with a hearty mwah hah hah to your comment, but this nurse is talking bollocks.

What a pity you have only the ignorance of this quack in your asthma clinic to rely on.

mathanxiety · 15/10/2016 04:38

Are viruses animal, vegetable or mineral...

FoggyMorn · 15/10/2016 08:25

Viruses are not animal, vegetable or mineral, they are in a class of their own. They are not quite living things as they can't replicate without hijacking the mechanisms of a living cell to do it. The may (or may not also alter the behaviour) of the infected organism in ways that increase the likely hood of the virus getting spread to other organisms.

Girliefriendlikesflowers · 15/10/2016 09:48

Thanks to the nice posters Smile Its all so raw for me still (6 months on) I find it hard to talk about at the best of times so then not to have a response feels personal iykwim.

Pam Flowers yes it's hell on Earth, something no mother should have to go through.

GobblersKnob · 15/10/2016 10:09

I am not anti vax, but even the government literature at the time the flu nasal spray was introduced for children was very clear that it was designed to protect the elderly and pregnant, who are able to have the jab themselves because there was such a poor take up in these groups. If you are at particular risk from flu, get the jab on the NHS yourself, as you are expected to.

Quietlygoingmad67 · 15/10/2016 10:56

girlie I'm sorry for your experience and also that you felt ignored. I too posted about a personal experience
and was ignored but I thought that
was because my DD was affected by the vaccine and whilst I agree she is in the minority it is still our experience. I hope you start to recover soon

JacquesHammer · 15/10/2016 11:02

girlie and pam Flowers

I am so so sorry for your experiences. Must have been so terrifying.

I have a 10 year old DD, she has asthma and I am petrified of her getting flu

Sallystyle · 15/10/2016 11:21

Girliefriendlikesflowers - don't take it personally the story of my son being in intensive care was completely invisible too

Not to everyone.

Your stories convinced me to pay privately to get my children the jab.

graphista · 16/10/2016 01:51

Verbena that nurse if what you say is true has no business working for the NHS! It worries me greatly that you work with vulnerable suggestible people!

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