To decline Covid Booster?

[8lbOfSugar]

I have an appointment for my covid booster and flu jab on 3rd Nov. Flu is routine due to being asthmatic and I don't mind getting that one. However I'm cautious about getting them both together. My Grandparents and a couple of friends have already had theirs and all of them have been knocked for 6 and had to stay in bed for 3ish days afterwards.

For context I've had minimal reaction to the previous jabs and the flu does make me ill for a period but I can go about my normal day with the symptoms. However I am now a lone parent to a newborn with very little support/childcare options so if it was to affect me being able to function normally then I have no one to step in to look after DS. GP are elderly and quite poorly, friends work and have their own families.

Am I allowed to decline the booster but still get my flu? Could I get the booster at a later date maybe? Has anyone had theirs recently and able to say how it affected them?

@8lbOfSugar wrote:
Both jabs are already booked in so I'm not sure how easy it would be to reschedule one of them, especially since its already to get any sort of appointment with the doctors anyways.

I had both booked for last Saturday at a local pharmacy, as pharmacies were all the NHS app offered me when I received the invitation text. I have long Covid, and when I got there I asked just to have the Covid jab. The vaccinator said that was fine, there was no pressure at all to have what I’d booked.

I’ve since arranged to have the flu jab at my GP - they have never done Covid jabs outside the mass vaccinations when several surgeries grouped together.

I’m not at all suggesting that you have them done separately, just pointing out how easy it was to have just one when I’d booked both.

Covid is walk in, no need to book.
In answer to your question, I know someone who had both jabs this week and were fine.

I got the Covid jab as well as the flu.

Like others, I had mild flu like symptoms between 12-24 hours after having the jab. I wfh that day and had to have a bit of a rest during the day, but nothing too awful.

My 76 yo mother was absolutely fine after hers though. No side effects at all, apart from a slightly sore arm.

My 16 yo dad very mild cold-like symptoms but nothing to change any plans for.

My elderly dad had his last covid booster a while back and came home to nose bleeds and a massive raise in blood pressure, he hadn't had one since but would take the flu one.

I am not sure if those vaccines achieve anything. And suppose we will never know for sure.
I've had zero Covid and flu vaccines.
I had Covid once (in 2022) and it was a rough few days, just like I remember the flu being. The flu I had 19 years ago.

I'm not vulnerable but also not in top health - I work night shifts and have been ill with few other things, including a serious bacterial infection.
But despite my unvaccinated status, Covid doesn't seem to beeline for me, which can't be said about my vaccinated friends/family.
I've probably jinxed it now 😬

Not worth the risk. I'm talking as someone severely injured from the second vax dose. It ruined my life.

I had both done last week (HCP). I had a sore arm for 48 hours afterwards (had both in the same arm), But was otherwise fine.

If you don't want to have both together, then I would prioritise COVID at the moment - there's a lot of it around, whereas flu is more of a problem in December/January =/- February.

Good luck, Whatever you decide

I didn't want to have both jabs at the same time. I had my flu jab at my local pharmacy two weeks ago and then my covid jab st the same pharmacy a week later. I've felt a bit unwell since having the covid jab but am just starting to feel a bit better.

I had the first two jabs because I was having chemo at the time and I had no choice. I have declined the rest because of vaccine injury in two close family members who have been yellow carded by their own consultants. I decided I didn't want to take the risk. I am a huge supporter of vaccines but feel that that the Covid one is not worth it at this moment in time.

So am I but pfizer injured me. Asthma is actually high serotonin from mast cell activation syndrome (mças). Turns out having mcas is a risk factor for both long covid and vaccine injury.

We’ve both had them together. Apart from sore arms we were fine.

I got my flu jab two weeks ago but declined the Covid jab. I was foolish enough to get the Covid jab in 2022 due to the insane and draconian rules that were in Ireland at the time. I haemorrhaged for two days after the Covid jab and got diagnosed with uterine cancer in 2023. I will regret it for the rest of my life.

Me too. I had both mine on Monday. Felt slightly under the weather that night and my arm was sore, but I was absolutely fine the next day.

Unfortunately this happens and people see it as "rare" or tin foil hat if you say this, I hope whatever your effects were are recoverable

The only people who can tell you whether you can reschedule either or both jabs is wherever you're booked in to have them. Surgeries differ hugely. The one I am registered with now is hugely flexible and obliging. The surgery I was with during the worst of COVID times was completely inflexible and whatever the opposite of obliging is. Of course you can say you don't want one or the other or both. It's an offer, not a compulsory summons. For what it's worth, I think you would be foolish to risk getting either Covid or flu, particularly as you are asthmatic, if you have sole responsibility for a baby, but the decision is, of course, yours to make. Similarly, no one else can tell you how badly you might react. My husband has just had his and had no reaction at all (same day, same arm). I didn't have mine because I had a bad cold and the nurse advised me not to because I am asthmatic and prone to chest problems. I will have them next week now though. I'm not assuming I won't have a reaction just because he didn't.

You should be able to book them separately. I had both jabs recently and separately, about a week apart. In my case, I have a weak left arm, so preferred to avoid a possible sore right arm. You can have them at the same time, and for many people that's the most convenient, but it's not compulsory.

BTW I didn't have significant side effects from either jab.

I have mine separetly - it’s easier to have the Covid on Nov 4 and flu another time because more chemists do walk in flu then walk in Covid

I've just had Covid- I would get the vaccine!

Same.

Have been getting both together and no issues at all. Just had mine yesterday (moderna & flu) and arm is sore, but expected that. It's already better than it was over night.

Yes of course you can refuse if you want. Although the fact your elderly grandparents reacted badly doesn’t mean you will. If you get ill you’d just have to cope so I’d just have the vaccines and take some paracetamol if need be. As there’s no general vaccination programme for flu and Covid across the U.K. I am guessing you must have health issues which mean the Covid jab is advisable?

also if your GP and friend had them both at the same time how do you or they know it was the Covid jab that made them feel ill?

I've had both at the same time and it's fine.

Always have the flu jab as I'm also asthmatic.

I wasn't offered the covid jab last year (then got covid for the first time). I've been offered it this year but the travel involved to get it is prohibitive cost wise. And I'm two weeks in from recovering from it and a chest infection so too late anyway!

So is my daughter, and she's had the boosters with no effect at all, just like millions of other people. Unfortunately, like your case, the few with adverse effects are the ones all over the media, and not all the others.
I'm sorry you've been affected this way.

Incidentally my dd's asthma and lung damage was been caused directly by the nasty dose of covid she had a couple of years ago, and she now has long covid. The last thing she needs is to catch it again.

Not a dumb question at all.
Antibodies have been found in breast milk.