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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:
alltouchedout · 13/10/2016 22:53

Verbena, have you ever had flu?

honkinghaddock · 13/10/2016 22:57

I think it has been the policy for a couple of years. Ds is having his at the GP's. The receptionist said they didn't do it but when we saw the practice manager she agreed he was in an at risk group. If you Google Flu Plan 2016 it is in there. We printed the relevant bits out just in case.

madamginger · 13/10/2016 23:00

In August 2016, JCVI was asked to review updated data from the 2015/16 season in the UK and other countries, in light of emerging evidence of low effectiveness of the nasal spray vaccine, lower than inactivated vaccine, reported in the United States (US). After reviewing evidence from across the UK, Finland, Canada and the United States following the 2015/16 influenza season, much of which demonstrates good overall effectiveness, JCVI continues to recommend using the live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV, the nasal spray vaccine) for preventing flu in children and strongly supports the continuation of the UK childhood influenza immunisation programme.

ChrissieLatham · 13/10/2016 23:01

Jinkx - that article is from 2014 though, there has been two more years worth of data since then. The nasal spray has been shown to work in the UK but not US for some reason.

Lorelei76 · 13/10/2016 23:01

OP thing is, one of your DC had an experience with flu and recovered really fast

that's not always going to happen is it? They could get severely ill with it.

RumbleMum · 13/10/2016 23:02

Verbena - have you heard all the stories on here about healthy children and adults ending up in hospital with flu? Yes, the human immune system is amazing but it's not infallible and vaccines have improved child mortality dramatically ... where shall we draw the line on what we vaccinate against? Maybe we shouldn't bother with polio, smallpox and tetanus any more?

dinosaursarebisexual · 13/10/2016 23:03

Thanks honking

hollinhurst84 · 13/10/2016 23:05

I've been told to avoid children for a period after they've had the nasal spray as its a live vaccine

littlepeas · 13/10/2016 23:09

I've had flu twice - I was absolutely floored with it as a very fit and healthy 18 year old and then I was pregnant with dc3 the second time. It is AWFUL. Anyone who dismisses flu has clearly never had it.

When my dd was a baby she was very poorly - she had a double aortic arch (an extra branch on her aorta that was wrapped around her windpipe) and was ventilated in ICU with a common cold - I can't bear to think of what would have happened to her if she'd caught flu.

Children are vaccinated as they are more likely to spread it about, possibly to vulnerable people. The vaccine will do no harm to your dc, but if they catch flu and pass it on to someone vulnerable that person could die from it. Flu is not a bad cold and can be very very serious.

Sara107 · 13/10/2016 23:09

Influenza is a terrible disease, and some strains have a high mortality ( more people killed by flu outbreak of 1919 than in first world war). Usually it is the old, young and ill who are at higher risk, but sometimes young healthy adults can be severely affected. Immunising all children is partly to protect them and partly to cut down on the spread from them to elderly folks who do not tend to respond to the vaccine so well. The flu virus changes rapidly, so although you will be immune to any strain you have already had, by next year the virus will have mutated so you may not be immune to the new strain, that's why you have to get the vaccine every year. The vaccine is developed on the basis of a 'best guess' as to what the main strains will be and sometimes they get it spot on and sometimes not. So last year's vaccine gave very poor protection but generally it is very good. I get my dD vaccinated, I don't know why you would not. It's free, done in school and is a sniff up the nose, not even a needle. At worst, it might give her cold symptoms for a few days. At best, it might save her from a serious illness. I think there is a lot of anxiety around vaccines these days which has grown up because people are very removed from the effects of the diseases. My parents grew up before antibiotics and when there weren't many vaccines. And people dying from diseases like tb, flu, etc or being maimed for life by polio or measles was part of their lives - relations, friends, neighbours. And long,long hospital stays (months even to recover from various types of fevers) Whereas now, many people have no direct experience of this degree of illness and all the focus of worry goes into the vaccines, and the very small risks that some of them pose.

blaeberry · 13/10/2016 23:13

Rumble we don't bother with smallpox vaccine anymore as vaccination successfully made smallpox extinct. We were so very close with polio too until conspiracy theorists stopped vaccinations in the two remaining small pockets of disease and it is now on the march again.

Humans have amazing immune systems but that hasn't stopped diseases wiping out over half the population of the UK in the past or killing millions every year. Diseases are amazing too and have also adapted very successfully to survive despite our immune systems.

BeBopTalulah · 13/10/2016 23:13

Verbena perhaps you have never heard of a child in your vast circle of friends dying, because luckily most of the people in your area do not share your views? I would say that's a pretty good testament to the value of herd immunity.

You have completely missed the point. The majority of people can and probably would fight off flu. But there will be people who will die. People with asthma, cystic fibrosis, cancer etc. etc. who will die. They can only be protected when a large percentage of the population are immune, which is why we vaccinate!

I wonder how many of the 500 million who died in 1918 would have taken a vaccine if they could?

Crunchymum · 13/10/2016 23:13

Can someone tell me how a 4yo has the flu vaccination definitively please

Also as it is a live vaccine is my baby at risk?

TIA

bunnyfuller · 13/10/2016 23:14

You develop 'natural' immunity with a vaccine the same as the virus itself. They don't inject immunity! It's a teeny bit of the virus, left with enough oomph for our immune systems to learn from but not enough to lay you flat and try to kill you! Wish anti vaxxers would glance at the medicine.

UterusUterusGhali · 13/10/2016 23:14

And 'herd immunity' is a terrifying concept. We are not cattle.

Actually loled at this. Grin

MsJudgemental · 13/10/2016 23:16

I had both measles and mumps as a child in the 60s and can testify that for me, at least, flu has been much worse. It mutates every year so you do not gain immunity.

welshgirlwannabe · 13/10/2016 23:17

I had a flu jab last week. I'm breastfeeding my 7 month old - will he receive immunisation from me?

Some of these stories are terrible Sad

We are lucky to be able to protect ourselves and our families. A flu jab is such a small thing. Just do it.

RumbleMum · 13/10/2016 23:18

blaeberry apologies, you're quite right - I was looking at my own immunisation card as I was born pre-eradication. Blush That's rather taken the wind out of my sails rant-wise ... Grin

ohlittlepea · 13/10/2016 23:21

Because they are worried about a pandemic. Also because flu hospitalises and kills people

cricketqueen · 13/10/2016 23:21

I hope the people blaming big pharma and saying that as their child is healthy they won't need it, never get cancer or an autoimmune disease.
Many people rely on the immunity of the larger population to protect them from these sort of infections. By denying it for your child you are running the risk of them passing it on to the lady 2 doors down who has cancer, or the boy in scouts with cystic fibrosis etc. A simple thing like the flu could kill them and it does every year.
I imagine if it was your child/mother/husband/father etc being protected by herd immunity you would be singing a different song all together.

bellie710 · 13/10/2016 23:23

My children have never had the flu vaccine, I have refused it every time. The first year it started all their classmates were really ill after having it, flu has so may different strains that I am in no hurry to give this to my kids!

Also I don't know any children that have ever had flu so the chances of getting flu are low in my opinion :)

TheSnorkMaidenReturns · 13/10/2016 23:24

Verbena37
You have completely missed the point about immunisation working for the community. Yes, lots of 'vulnerable' people, including asthmatics like me, and older people are able to have the jab every year and do. But there are also many who are too ill to have the jab that year (or ever).
People who are immuno-suppressed because of the medication they are on, or they are having chemotherapy, for example. Your unvaccinated child could pass flu on to them and they could die.
We're not talking about a nasty sniffle here, but a virus that kills many every year.

WiddlinDiddlin · 13/10/2016 23:24

I've had flu twice - once as a relatively healthy 14 year old ... delirious, fevers, hallucinating, couldn't walk, wiped me out for about 3 weeks.

I had it again at 29 when I also was in heart failure.

Same symptoms but.. it nearly killed me, and it took about 5 months to get better again.

Both times I caught flu from little kids - I now have the jab, but I also avoid the wee little disease vectors, the mobile contagion-vessels that are.. OTHER PEOPLE... as much as I can.

And you lot who insist on turning up to work or booking appointments or coming to fucking visit me when you have some vile infectious disease are a massive bunch of wankers. You should have to ring a bell and shout UNCLEAN UNCLEAN wherever you go and paint a big black cross on your doors... notreallyentirelyjoking

HappyAxolotl · 13/10/2016 23:26

Even with a milder type of flu you're still barely able to get up for a few days, feel like death warmed up for a few weeks, then have a few months where you catch every bug going because your immune system has taken such a hammering. What is the point in risking that if you don't need to?

littlepeas · 13/10/2016 23:30

I need to stop reading this thread, the non-vaxxers are making me so cross. I can not understand what on Earth these people think a vaccine is going to do to their child, compared to what flu could?! It is such skewed thinking. And ultimately, no matter how healthy a child is and how able they are of fighting off the flu, they could pass it on to someone it could quite merrily kill. Anyone who dismisses flu has no experience of it - it is a dreadful illness and can be extremely serious.