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

Anecdotal, but of people that I'm around, the ones who get the boosters get covid semi regularly and those who don't seem to avoid it. My elderly inlaws kept getting ill until they stopped getting boosters.

YANBU.

Also: do consider wearing a high grade mask on public transport... Covid is airborne and hangs in the air like smoke. Fabric or blue surgical masks are ineffective, you want FFP2 or FFP3 grade to stop covid getting entry to your airways. Oxford Uni study on masks here

@bobaloo are they around young kids? Nurseries and schools are pretty much unvaccinated, yet have lots of covid.

The pollen count is really high at the moment, so lots of people have hayfever.

Anecdotal, but me, my exDH, and my DF have all had every booster going (I'm about to have my 7th) and none of us has had covid once. I'm also pretty sure my exMIL hasn't had it either.

We sort of cancel each other out.

But surely this just goes to reinforce the position that it seems to be pot luck?
There are people who had no vaccines and got seriously ill saying they regret not having the vaccine.
Then people who had no vaccines who barely noticed having it so say they're glad they didn't have it.
Then people who had 7 vaccines who have been getting seriously ill each time saying they think they're pointless.
Then people who had vaccines saying even though they were seriously ill the vaccines helped because they're not dead.
Then people who had 7 vaccines who have hardly noticed having it who say this proves the vaccine definitely worked.

Everyone is mainly going by their own experiences. If you know lots of people who have had vaccine issues then that will put you off vaccines. But if you know lots of vulnerable people you'll be more pro vaccines.

I know 2 families who have had people with severe vaccine issues who to be rushed to hospital and have been told to not have any more vaccines now. Both their families now all refuse any boosters etc.

Everyone's experiences are anecdotal and rightly or wrongly that's mainly what the majority of people go by when making decisions.

Strongly support this. I had covid last autumn, testing +ve exactly 5 days after being on a packed tube.

I do realise this - that's why I made my post in the first place I was simply pointing out to the other poster than their anecdotal experience is totally the opposite to mine, so neither theory is reliable.

Covid is a SARS virus. Not a cold virus.

I thought SARS was the syndrome - severe acute respiratory syndrome?

Yes, but you don’t get SARS with a cold.

And it was named because it had lots in common with previous SARS infections.

Thing is, it's like anything really isn't it, it's a risk as you don't know how/when/if you are going to get COVID and how you respond. I took the three initial vaccines, two AZ, one Pfizer. I had COVID once, for two days last year, as did DH. The one time he caught it in a London office.

DH has been in meetings where literally everyone got COVID, several times over, he only caught it the once, commuting to London too. Neither of us have ever had flu. We rarely get anything. We are just lucky I guess.

DD has long COVID and it's a slog for her. She was fine until this year. Other DD had post viral syndrome from a virus years ago, took her a year to get back to normal.

Its part of life now. I'm quite stoical about it tbh. Although TBF, I suppose if I had caught it badly I would feel different.

Covid is still a Coronavirus though. And the original point was that they haven't found a vaccine for any of the viruses that cause common "colds" including any of the Coronaviruses.
So whether or not a Coronavirus can cause SARS (which it doesn't in everyone. It can cause "cold symptoms"), they still struggle to vaccinate against Coronaviruses.

There is no comparison with hay fever. I have hay fever and had covid recently.
Hay fever - itchy eyes, itchy nose, itchy throat, sneezing.
COVID - razor sore throat, fever, muscle aches, cough, loss of taste and smell, shortness of breath, dizziness, some people get gastric symptoms. After 3 weeks was still out of breath walking round the block.

I really don't think the vaccines make any difference. My parents had their vaccines 4 weeks ago, both ended up with COVID 2 weeks later and my mum ended up in hospital for 5 days. Pretty useless.

Just goes to show it doesn't work, you can't say for definite you would feel any worse for not having it. Also shows it doesn't protect other people by having it

No clinical benefit

Husband had the booster two months ago I didn't. Our neighbour female did as did her husband. We've had COVID this month.

My husband really poorly , sinuses, chest cough, drowning in congestion but he's had pleurisy

Myself a blinding headache for a day congested cold and upset stomach for a few days

Female neighbour very tired, feeling blah for a week

Male neighbour caught nowt.

It's a wriggly virus that still can't be predicted hence I guess the long list of possible symptoms.

It's the first time husband and I've had COVID

Neighbours second time.

Yes, if you can afford the jab I would get it. The reason the free jabs stopped was because they were expensive and the government don't actually care if the poor catch it repeatedly. You can read online (from the company that installed them) that the houses of parliament have had air purifiers with hepa filters installed and you can bet they're all getting their jabs on expenses while they're still letting the virus rip through us peasants while spouting their 'live with the virus' propoganda.

A long time ago I studied the history of medicine and I may be misremembering through the mists of time but I recall literally no civilisation in history, even going back to the cavemen that used the medical approach of 'pretend it isn't there and hope it goes away' to deal with an epidemic or pandemic. Protect yourself if you can.

There’s a clinical benefit to the individual. at a population level it wasn’t deemed to be worth the cost of a mass vaccination program. Other countries made different decisions.

Thanks for your replies. I have booked an appointment to have the Covid jab.

I am on the 'vulnerable' list due to having type 1 diabetes and have had four vaccinations and have never had it. My sister had it March 2020 and still has not regained smell or taste (has had it again too). My other sister had it badly at Christmas and as we were visiting from abroad we didn't see her except one day. Get the injection.

MandUs · Yesterday 21:02
Covid is rife at the moment with a really nasty new strain. I'm a nurse in a medical receiving unit and we have been swamped for the last 3 weeks. About 50% of our admissions have been people very unwell with Covid. I've spend my day caring for 4 of them today.”

Thank you.

Yes, the Covid vaccine continues to be free to all eligible over 18 year olds here in Australia. I actually had to pay for my flu vaccine but it wasn’t very much. Lots of companies do offer it to all their staff.

My workplace which just has under 100 staff offered the flu vaccine for the first time this year (too late for me). I maintain sick registers and we are noticing since Covid our staff are a lot more sick than they used to be. Shingles cases in younger staff for example, which we never had prior to Covid.

Cost. Cost. Cost. Cuts everywhere even in the most shocking circumstances.

Read this from the Times today if you want to be appalled.

If a 20 year old is expected to deal with this life debilitating situation for years, then only the people who really really need it will get free vacines.

Glastonbury’s a big step for my son, deserted by this NHS
Martin Samuel
Thursday June 27 2024, 9.00pm BST, The Time

One of our lads is off to Glastonbury this week. I don’t know who is more excited, him or us.

Us probably. He’s got all the uncertainty of accessibility passes and transport and whether it all holds up, and he holds up. We’re just looking at a young man able to live life again. I’ll explain.

About nine, ten months ago, he started getting hip pain. Started when he played football, which he did two, three times a week, but then it began affecting other forms of exercise, running, even walking. And we thought, bursitis, maybe a sports injury. But it persisted, getting worse, until he could barely walk at all. And so he went for an MRI.

You probably won’t have heard of avascular necrosis, also known as osteonecrosis. We hadn’t. It’s vanishingly rare. The blood supply to the joint dies. No one knows why. So the bone begins to die too. And the pain becomes excruciating. It needs heavy-duty painkillers, the type that preclude work. Ultimately, the hip needs to be replaced. Except doctors don’t like replacing hips in active 27-year-olds. So we found a surgeon who performed a procedure called core decompression with bone grafting. The recovery is very protracted and painful. There will be times when patients wonder why they didn’t just replace the hip. But, if it works, it arrests the problem for a while.

Although that’s not the point. Before we found this surgeon, before we paid, there was an NHS consultation. And this is what my 27-year-old son was told. That they don’t do core decompression; but they also don’t replace hips until it is absolutely necessary.

So wait.

Could be two years, could be five, could be ten or twenty. Eventually a critical stage would be reached and he’d be put on the list for a new hip. My lad asked about periods of remission, what he might be able to do? Gym, run, walk? The doctor looked at him. “Sitting’s all right,” he said.

So that was the NHS advice for a healthy, active, twentysomething: sit in a chair, in pain, on opioids, unable to work, unable to function, unable to exercise, possibly getting high blood pressure, possibly getting type 2 diabetes, letting your young life pass away, until your hip crumbles and you’re in agony.