Why are all children being immunised against flu?

[MiniChedda]

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?

Last year wasn't spot on at all. At my child's school nearly all the children were immunised, soon after more than half the school went down with a really nasty flu bug. My daughter was one of the few that wasn't immunised and one of the few that didn't get the bug.
From my understanding of those who fall ill after having the jab is because the vaccine triggers an existing virus that is already in the body. The jab is not the problem. What you previously have in your body is.

The one year in last 14 years I didn't have jab was one I got flu; a healthy 24 year old I was off work for 2 weeks and couldn't physically move unless I needed the loo which was dangerously infrequent due to being dehydrated due to drinking being such an effort.
Truly awful and I've jabbed ever since

redspotty, it may well be true, but you can't extrapolate that the flu jab is the cause.

Thank you Hildred.

I'll book us in tomorrow (I have the jab for asthma)

Quencher - actually there is a theory that the flu jab means that you lose non specific immunity to other respiratory illness. Including, presumably, other flu strains. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22423139

Quencher Uh, no. If you get 'flu even after the jab, it's because no jab is 100%, ever. You may have been unlucky, and come across an unexpected strain, or it could be that you get it but milder than you would have without the jab.

So, as with pretty much every vaccination thread ever, what we can extrapolate is that anti accents are still selfish, and both ignorant, and too stupid to realise their ignorance.

I sincerely hope that neither you, nor your families catch the flu this year. I also hope that if you do, you don't pass it on to someone less robust than you all purport to be.

Stratters, maybe not, but spending millions of pounds of public funds should mean that there is a positive impact. Last year was the highest flu rate for 5 years. Despite further rolling out of the vaccine for young children. A vaccine which does undoubtedly carry risk, and which is being done primarily for the benefit of others.

Booking myself and DD in. Anyone know why adults can't just have the sniff version run at the sight of needles

Kids are supervectors and spread the virus far and wide- friends/parents/grandparents.
My view is that the flu vaccine for kids is invariably for the health of the herd and nothing to do with the threat to the child as an individual - which is why my DD doesn't get it. I'm pro vaccine but not when it's not for my child's best interests.

What a sad situation our world is in. When people think like this.

Tbh jiggly I'm not a dr so I'm not 100% sure why some people in the at risk group are told not to take the virus. Are you saying though that because children can shed the live virus for a few days that's an argument for children not having the jab. I'm not trying to be smart, I'm genuinely asking if that's your argument.

Vaccine not virus no one would be daft enough to choose to take the virus.

Children are vaccinated because besides being vulnerable they are also snotty, wipey, infectious beings who pass it all over the place in the way adults don't.

Yes it is a nasty illness in fact it can be very nasty. It has been more nasty than the Black Death and AIDS and then some;(

Some light reading on the subject;!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic

www.nap.edu/read/11150/chapter/3#60

I had the flu in my 20s and it was much worse than a "normal bug". I was bed-bound for 2 weeks, high fever, severe nausea, etc. I barely ate for most of the two weeks and I lost a LOT of weight. It was horrendous.

I wouldn't wish it on anyone, but especially not a young child or old person.

Ds had it this week as he's in the YR - Y3 group. He appears to have shown no ill effects so far. Either myself or DH will also have it as the thought of the rest of us being poorly whilst ds is at full throttle is too much to contemplate :)
My understanding is that normal flu is risky for the young the old and the vulnerable. The 1918 pandemic strain was unusual in affecting the healthy people in the middle too.

Fuck me there are some stupid people speaking up today. How they can live their lives and even raise children without succumbing to fatal stupidity is beyond me.

This reminds me to book to have the jab. I didn't last year and went down with flu very badly at Easter time. A lot if people can shake it off quickly, like the rest of my family, others get hit badly and it's not predictable - I'm a healthy 30 something and could even shower for two weeks. I had a slight complication and couldn't stop vomiting so deteriorated before dragging myself to the GP in my pyjamas. It took another few weeks to feel normal again. You don't need to be typically vulnerable to suffer badly, many young men died in the Spanish flu because they had strong immune systems.

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

What on earth is "terrifying" about something that saves lives and does not hurt anyone, and in some cases is the only thing protecting people like my friend, who had a transplant as a child and cannot have vaccinations?

Do you actually know what herd immunity is, or are you having a knee-jerk reaction to the name?

Incidentally I worked with a guy last year who was an anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist, he was convinced vaccines contain tracker microchips and/or mind control substances. He also kept saying, "But no one actually knows what's in a vaccine." When I instantly shot back, "deactivated viruses" (yes I know some are live but this wasn't a convo about flu vaccines) he looked quite stunned. Clearly had no idea what a virus even really was. And didn't enjoy me pointing out that if vaccines had microchips in them all it would take to expose the entire conspiracy would be one of Britain's many millions of doctors, nurses, pharmacy staff, etc. to grab a sample and pop it under a microscope.

I refused to give it to my DD yesterday and told the nurse I thought people (including kids) should fight it off themselves unless they have significant underlying health issues or are immunosuppressed.

Um, there's not really any such thing as "should" when it comes surviving illness. It's hardly a choice is, it? That's like saying people should just "fight off" cancer without treatment.

It's still possible to catch flu inspite of having the vacinne. The flu virus mutates.

My daughter is in year 3. Children in year 4 aren't that much older and they aren't offered the vacinne. I don't believe the risk/benefit for vaccinating a year 3 is much different to a year 4.

Deaths from flu are very rare in healthy seven year old children. Dd grand parents can choose whether they have the vaccine. All four grandparents have declined their flu vacinne for various reasons. My great uncle is convinced that the flu vacinne gave him ME.

I have health problems.
They are worse now. The flu is potentially lethal to me.
I have had it once.
I have also had swine flu.
Normal flu was worse. I ended up going to the hospital and needing numerous antibiotics.
I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
I had a raging temp, was sick, headaches, shaking, lethargic, aching, seeing things, breathing difficulties.
Over two weeks for the worse of the symptoms to clear up, then another final 2 weeks to get rid of the rest.
I never miss a flu jab now.

I know there is a big difference between a cold and flu but I often read these posts with "oh you would KNOW if you had the flu" and wonder if we know enough about it at all.

btw I have had the flu, I got into the car to go to the doctor and the windows steamed up on the inside! I had to phone my dad to carry me home!!

But there must be milder versions of it, like surely some people get sicker than others with the same flu.

I suppose its hard to know every fact because it changes every year.

Jiggly we tried the nasal spray one year a few years ago and both my dc's got ill from it. Ds was terribly ill and I haven't given him the flu vaccine since. Dd gets the flu vaccine, but the shot which is not a live vaccine. I am so uncertain about ds' potential reaction (as he's had bad reactions from both the nasal and the shot). Ds has mitochondrial disease and his autonomic system is broken as a result. Any over stimulus can put his body into overdrive. So just his body producing antibodies to the jab (non live) can make him quite ill and trigger other knock on effects. I have to weigh up whether it's worth missing several weeks of school to get the jab. It never comes out in time before school starts because we are in the USA and school starts mid-August. I am toying with giving him the jab at the start of the 3 week Xmas holidays, but that kind of sucks for ds to potentially be sick for his whole holiday.

Also we are in the USA where the nasal spray has been withdrawn because of inefficacy.