To consider paying for a private Covid immunisation?

[CherubEarrings]

I am in my 60s but not clinically vulnerable but travel on public transport and everyone is coughing and sneezing. I have had it twice and was unwell both times.

Anyone else considering it? It is £100

I'm in London, have just got Covid for the third time and know loads of people who have it now /very recently. The latest strain is nasty and I'm definitely paying for a vaccination as soon as I'm well enough.

It is concerning that there is another wave with so many people with no protection from vaccination.

I'm in London too, a lot of covid here, a lot of people off work, a lot of GPs writing weird and wonderful things on sick notes because they have been told not to put "covid". Or they think they have, or something, I'm not sure of the ins and outs.

My GP said I couldn't return to work, but she couldn't write "covid" on a sick note, so she went with the symptoms, which was low oxygen sats, and breathlessness. That is what was written on the sick note, instead of covid, just that I was low in oxygen, and it was making me breathless

There is certainly a lot around here right now. But I have relatives in other areas, such as Yorkshire, who tell me there is a lot there too

Yup if you can pay for it and worried then definitely do it - I am thinking of the same later this year (and I am in my 40s) - caught covid in Jan and was sick for 2-3 months so if this offers a bit of protection why not? Just like the flu jab.

Why couldn't she write covid?

My gp won’t write it either for some reason. He’s put ‘viral disease’ 😑

Money

Covid is meant to be notifiable?

We haven't been told not to write covid, but most people don't test now

Baffles me why people keep having jabs for it and even more baffled that people are still testing!! Crazy.

Baffles me why people are baffled over others testing or having jabs.

Do you have a 97 year old relative in a care home? I test when I visit to keep her and her friends safe. Why is that so hard to understand?

When you’re extremely ill and have been for two weeks, it’s useful to know what you actually have. My daughter was crying saying she couldn’t stand the light so I wanted to rule out meningitis. Like others have said some people are in contact with vulnerable people as well.

Yes, if I was 60 and using public transport, I’d pay, assuming my GP had no concerns.

Most will have protection from previous infection.

I am CEV and after my 2nd booster I was so ill I decided to tv take my chance with Covid. Just had Covid and felt crap for over a week but still not taking any more Covid jags, just like I didn’t take the flu jag either . In saying all that, your body, your money so if you want it, get it - no one else’s business but yours.

Yes I'd pay. I've had covid 3 times and each time it has really hit me very hard. My siblings suffered badly as well. Covid goes for certain people, for reasons unknown. If you are one of those people, then yes get the jab.

I don't have a relative that old but I regularly visit a few in their 80s in their own homes. I'd avoid anyone that vulnerable if I had any infectious illness. It wouldn't matter if it was covid or something else and the tests are not reliable.

It hasn’t. We’re just finishing the spring Covid booster programme, which is targeted at the most vulnerable.

Vaccines are designed on a macro level to reduce mortality and hospitalisations, not on a micro level to stop people getting poorly. Hence why lately not everyone has been offered a vaccine.

I would speculate that GPs won’t write Covid on a sick note, or put it in the records as it hasn’t been lab confirmed with a recognised approved test (the requirement for recording a notifiable disease).

Seeing as the covid vaccine doesn't stop you getting it or having severe symptoms, what good would it do offering the whole population it over and over?
You say you'll be paying for it next time as getting covid over and over again is bad (which I'm not actually in disagreement with), but the vaccine doesn't stop you catching it or passing it on or getting really ill. So I don't think everyone getting vaccinated repeatedly will stop everyone getting covid repeatedly.

Possinass

I had Covid pre vaccine and was very unwell (fit healthy person). Again, after vaccines, and it barely registered.

I don’t visit if I have any illness but the issue with Covid is that I can pass it on without knowing.

I want my grandmother to die there in peace with the people she knows, not in hospital unable to breathe. She got Covid twice and even the last time which was just before Christmas they kept her isolated in a side room with no visitors. We’ll happily shove a test up our noses to stop that happening again.

I don’t test routinely, I’m at home with possible Covid now and I’m just minimising who I see (not hard, we live rurally and can WFH) but I do before I visit her. I think that’s just a responsible thing to do. It’s been rife all year in the university I work at so I get plenty of exposure.

But that's you. There are many many people who it barely registered with pre vaccines then had a horrible case after. And there's many people who had a terrible first, third and fourth time but had a mild sniffle the second and fifth. My unvaccinated friend barely noticed in 2022. I barely noticed after vaccines in 2022. We both got it from the same place (we assume as we'd been out together in a busy place then came down ill soon after) and both had very similar very mild symptoms.
I'm not against vaccines. If there was evidence it stopped you catching it or even just feeling really really ill then I'd have it. But there isn't. As a previous poster said the vaccine may well stop people dying, but it doesn't stop people feeling like death for days or weeks. Or in some cases, it doesn't even stop them dying.

I get the spring booster because I'm ECV but it didn't prevent me catching Covid again 😒 might have shortened it a bit.

Are you easy baffled? What exactly are you finding hard to understand?