Kids caught flu despite having jab

[Blueisthecolour1]

Both kids were vaccinated first week of Nov. Last week my eldest son had it & on Sunday night just gone my youngest (4) came down with it. Spiking fever, body aches, chills, exhaustion, headaches BUT with a noticeable absence of sneezing/congestion/general nasty head cold.

Both off their food for the duration - I’ve been pushing liquids & managed to get two bananas & two yoghurts down the little one today.

My AIBU is this - am I right in thinking that the flu jab doesn’t stop you having flu - it reduces the symptoms & possibly shortens the lifespan of the illness a little. I was initially surprised they got it as bad as they have in the first place - both kids barely moved off the sofa for 3+ days each time. So I am surprised that despite being vaccinated they’re feeling as bad as they are, however when I think about it I wonder if they would be literally bedridden if they hadn’t had their jabs. And there’s no congestion going on which I’m so so thankful for. I guess the vaccine must be doing some work here to make it slightly more bearable?

Yes. The Jab has never guaranteed you won’t get flu.

It stops you getting some forms of the flue, but not others.

The manufacturers work off epidemiological data to customise the vaccine each year to match what the exepected flu is going to be - this is always a trade off between doing it early enough to have time to manufacture enough vaccine, vs waiting as long as possible to get the most accurate prediction.

It won't always be right - a bit like a weather forecast.

Vaccines are no guarantee that you won't get infected.

YANBU since everyone knows that’s the case, don’t they?

I had the jab last year - never again! I was more Ill after that than ever before.

Not sure how to vote, but agree. It doesn't guarantee immunity but reduces chances of getting it and severity of symptoms if you do.

That's how vaccines work generally. Also flu ones are generally for certain strains (the ones that are going to be most prevalent in circulation), hence why they change slightly every year.

How do you even know they had the flu and not another virus?
But yes, it's common knowledge that the flu jab doesn't stop you getting the flu and you'll never know whether a person would have had worse symptoms had they not have been vaccinated as you can't test that on individuals.

Unless your children have been tested you've no way of knowing whether they have actual flu – it could just as easily be one of many other viruses that cause these kinds of symptoms, especially in children.
If they do have confirmed flu then it may be a different strain from the one they were vaccinated against (the NHS makes an educated guess ahead of each flu season as to what strain of flu they think is most likely to be prevalent and they're not always right).
Or they may have caught the strain of flu they were vaccinated against. Vaccines aren't 100% effective.
Vaccination is about reducing the amount of virus circulating in the community at large, not about protecting individuals as such.
Hope your DC are on the mend though x

It’s frustrating isn’t it, but unfortunately you can never guarantee not getting these illnesses.

We always have every vaccine going, but DS and I currently at home very ill with some kind of viral infection. He’s a day ahead of me, so is noticeably on the mend.

The flu vaccine protects against what are expected to be the most common strains of the virus in any given year. If your DC did infact have flu, they may well have had a completely different strain. It’s why the vaccine is more effective in some years than others; sometimes they get it wrong.

@GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing

It’s awful isn’t it, especially when you’re all ill together. Hope you feel better soon

How do you know they've got flu?

Were they tested for flu and was the illness confirmed as a strain of influenza? If not then it may be they were suffering from another virus in which case the flu jab wouldn’t have done anything.

Not vaccine is 100% effective though. If it was definitely a form of flu that they had then it might be it was a strain/ mutation which was not covered by the vaccine or yes, it might be that the illness would have been even worse without the vaccine.

There are so many viral infections, it's impossible to say whether it was the flu strain that your DC was vaccinated against or not.

Both my daughter and I had a virus like the one you describe - she's had her vaccination and was back to school after a day and was just under the weather, while I was suffering fever, chills, aches for a week! Who knows what it was, but it was bloody horrible!

There's lots of other viruses doing the rounds. Unless you've been tested you don't know if it's flu.

Hope they are better soon but they may not even have the flu, there are tons of viral infections going round including covid and RSV.

It’s been pretty rough, but ds (8) has been good as gold, to be fair to him. So much easier than when they’re really little.

DD (14) is luckily at their dad’s this week, as they have different schedules - she hates missing school so would be getting v anxious about catching it.

Ive been worrying about work too as I’m two months into a new job. Which was why I made sure we’d all had every jab going before we started. Nightmare!

Did your kids get out of bed? If so they didn't have flu...

Most people who claim to have flu don't.

If there was a £1000 by your bedside and you had flu, you wouldn't be able to get out of bed for it.

Most likely a heavy cold/COVID.

I guess we won’t know what we’ve got though - if it’s flu, a cold, RSV etc

Its not Covid and it’s not bacterial is all I know!

The trouble is anti vaxxers are on the rise so even those who have been vaccinated are more at risk as the vaccines are only at their most effective if almost everyone has them.

My poor 2 year old cousin now has Scarlett fever despite having all his jabs.

This isn't true. Flu can be mild or asymptomatic.

They make educated guesses about what variants will be circulating. Some years do better than others. They reckon that flu vaccines prevented between 15% and 52% of flu cases in children between 2015-2020 in England.

You cant vaccinate against scarlet fever it is caused by bacteria.

There are many different types of flu. The vaccine developers just estimate which type is going to be the most prevalent and develop a different vaccine every year. If you catch a less common flu then that's just the luck of the draw.