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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Flu jab

51 replies

DeepfriedPizza · 01/10/2018 11:15

I have had the flu jab for the past 2 years, paid for by myself at about £13 each time.

Colleague has a condition where it would make her very ill if she got flu and therefore she gets it done at the doctor (for free) alongside her whole family.
I've decided not to get it this year for a variety of reasons.

She came in this morning after having her appointment to get the jab and I told her that I wasn't going to get it this year. She said " it's people like you that will make me ill" I said if she or the work wanted to pay for me to get it done then I will and I also said that if I felt remotely like I was getting flu then I will just stay off sick.

Now she is in a huff.

We only work together 2 days a week! The chances of me getting flu are slim, the chances of her catching flu from me are very slim and even slimmer since she's had the bloody jab!!

Aibu to not get the jab?

OP posts:
Original poster
DeepfriedPizza · 01/10/2018 11:16

It wouldn't be a life or death situation if she did get flu, it would just mean she'd be ill for longer.

OP posts:
JamPasty · 01/10/2018 11:19

If you can afford it, I would as she's very vulnerable. However, no you don't have to. Maybe you could suggest she approach HR or management and see if they would be willing to provide her co-workers with the jab for free

Thundercracker · 01/10/2018 11:20

What are your reasons then and how have they changed from previous years?

mamamedic · 01/10/2018 11:23

She's had the flu jab. She's protected.

If you get a different strain of flu, she's not protected but you can't really help that!

Original poster
DeepfriedPizza · 01/10/2018 11:26

@Thunkercracker I just don't want to. Last year I felt a bit ill after I got it.

She hasn't said anything to any of our other colleagues, just me.

OP posts:
Amara123 · 01/10/2018 11:34

Just to point out that the whole " I'll stay out of work if I'm sick" approach doesn't work, as if you contract flu you are infectious for 24 hours before you develop symptoms.
That said she has had her jab so should have some protection, depending on what happens strain wise this season.

ShadyLady53 · 01/10/2018 11:39

If she’s had the vaccine she will be protected from the strains that the vaccine protects against so it’s not an issue that you haven’t had it.

Myself and my family have autoimmune conditions that mean we could quite easily die from flu (though anyone can). It really frustrates me when people go out and about or turn up at work in an infectious state coughing and spluttering their germs about because they “aren’t dying or anything”. Well good for you but some of us, should we contract your illness will become very ill. For example, I didn’t get Fresher’s Flu at uni, I got pneumonia and it took my 5 months to recover fully. Same goes for care workers who refuse the vaccine...it’s not to protect you, it’s to protect the vulnerable people you care for and ensure you are fit to look after them. If you are a HCP and aren’t willing to get vaccinated you shouldn’t be in that profession.

So, YANBU but do be considerate and do as you say, go straight home and stay if you become ill to avoid passing it on to colleagues. Also look into who was killed by flu last year...many young, healthy people. Having flu is much worse than the symptoms you may experience following the jab.

longwayoff · 01/10/2018 11:40

Her health, her problem. She's had the jab so should mind her own business about yours.

FullOfJellyBeans · 01/10/2018 11:44

How effective is the flu jab (for the strains it protects from). Presumably there's still a chance of you infecting her and her being unlucky in that her vaccine wasn't effective. I'd probably just get it done if I worked with someone vulnerable.

MereDintofPandiculation · 01/10/2018 11:56

Presumably there's still a chance of you infecting her and her being unlucky in that her vaccine wasn't effective. If it wasn't effective it was because the strain of flu that actually happened was not one that was included in the jab, so the jab would be just as ineffective in anyone else

FullOfJellyBeans · 01/10/2018 11:58

MereDintofPandiculation

Have you got a source for that? Most vaccines aren't 100% effective even against the exact strain of illness they protect you from.

longwayoff · 01/10/2018 11:59

Oh go on OP, have the potentially ineffective vaccine too and you can be ill together. Perhaps.

DGRossetti · 01/10/2018 12:05

Not sure that personal health details like that need to be shared at work in the first place ?

OP could just lie and say they have decided to have the jab to show colleague what a team player (and fucking legend) they are ?

Stressedoverkids · 01/10/2018 12:11

MereDintofPandiculation if she is immunosuppressed her immune system may not produce enough antibodies to the Flu and so she could still be susceptible.

As the sister of someone who is very unwell I do feel disappointed in people who don't get the vaccination even though she could die from it. But I do realise it's their choice.

If I was the OP I would get it, I wouldn't ever want to put someone's health at risk.

This year the vaccination contains four strains of Flu in the hopes that it will give immunity however if the virus mutates significantly it won't work and this could lead to a pandemic.

Stressedoverkids · 01/10/2018 12:13

The big problem with flu is you are contagious before you even know it's flu!

Proofer · 01/10/2018 12:13

I've just had flu and there is no way I will ever skip getting a flu jab ever again. Nothing is worth going through what I just did

GhoulWithADragonTattoo · 01/10/2018 12:18

Well it’s not really her business but I can understand her view. I was having chemo last winter and made sure all my family had the flu vaccine before visiting me. That said they were all entitled to free jabs (because of being carers or because of age) so slightly different to your position.

mamamedic · 01/10/2018 12:25

The flu jab is not a live vaccine. If it was, all the immunosuppressed people would become ill. So it's synthetic. For that reason it really has no reason to make you feel ill.

However, I do know lots of people who say it does. Hmm

Hillarious · 01/10/2018 12:26

But there's no guarantee that the strain of flu you're vaccinated against is the strain that will definitely be doing the rounds. It's a guessing game, but educated guessing, of course.

I've sometimes had the flu jab, sometimes haven't. It's not a live vaccine, so can't make you ill, but I have routinely been ill shortly after having it. This year, I'll be having the jab (free of charge through work) and will monitor my health to see if there actually is a correlation between me having the jab and being ill.

I have had flu, so I know it's not nice.

overagain · 01/10/2018 12:32

I get it through work, but not everyone I work with takes it up. I've often got a cough or cold (work in and out of a hospital, across many wards and departments and in the community) I certainly couldn't be off every time I feel a bit 'off', I'd be sacked. We work with immune suppressed and vulnerable people all the time but work do not expect us to be off if we in ourselves feel well enough to be in, regardless of the impact we could have on our patients.

So in short, if a hospital does not expect it's staff to have the flu vaccine or be off every time they have a sniffle, then your colleague can't.

Elphame · 01/10/2018 12:33

Last years effectiveness was appalling for adults.

I won't be having it.

www.gov.uk/government/news/flu-vaccine-effectiveness-in-2017-to-2018-season

Bluelady · 01/10/2018 12:41

Despite both having flu jabs, we both got it last winter. It was horrendous, working on the premise that the jab reduces the likelihood of getting it, there's no way I wouldn't get it. The only people who trivialise it are people who have never had it.

ShadyLady53 · 01/10/2018 12:42

Because of the ineffectiveness of last year’s vaccine this year’s vaccine contains an adjuvant and protects against 4 strains in the under 65s. It’s basically supercharged.

Last year’s vaccine didn’t protect against Aussie Flu as it was manufactured before Aussie flu took hold. They didn’t/couldn’t predict how dominant that strain was prior to making last year’s vaccine (in fact it was a combination of strains that resulted in Aussie Flu).

This year’s vaccine is supposedly the most potent yet. I’m having it ASAP.

NoProbLlama78 · 01/10/2018 12:43

It's £7 at Asda this year. Would you have to pick up the slack if she was off sick?

ItsABlusteryDay · 01/10/2018 13:02

I have an autoimmune disease, also just had treatment that means I can catch things very easily, and that they could easily turn into worse ie pneumonia. Therefore I get offered the free flu jab. I've never had the flu jab, and don't intend to. Your flu jab would be the same as hers, therefore she would be protected, and if you caught a different strain then she would be just as likely to catch it as she wouldn't be protected. So I don't think yabu at all.

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