Single mums should be offered a free flu jab?

[Journeyintomelody]

This is off the back of a very hard week. I picked up a nasty dose of flu, probably from a baby group. I have a super high pain threshold but when I have a cold I'm utterly useless. I need two or three days to hibernate and recover.

Last week I discovered that you can't do this as a single mum. DD (7.5 months) needed me. So I had to plough on, and it was hard. It's been over a week and I still haven't shaken it off completely, but now DD has it (it's breaking my heart to see her unwell). She has been dosed up with Calpol but is very unsettled. Between the two of us, it is probably going to write off nearly 3 weeks.

AIBU to think that single parents should be offered free flu jabs?

40% of people on UC are in work so if they are earning a wage and getting topped up why can’t they pay?

I don’t know how it all works so I could be wrong here, but if they’re receiving UC + their wage, I thought that was to bring them up to a minimum living standard (so still very low in comparison to most others)?

The high cost of childcare distorts a lot of incentives to work harder.

Can your DD have neurofen or similar? We've always found that much better when they are unwell and lasts longer so we would alternate to make sure they were always covered and try to time it so neurofen was before bed and would get a better night that way

Covid jabs are worse Op, if you don't qualify for a free one you can buy one at Boots for £98 and that's beyond a lot of people's budgets.

I see where you're coming from. But you can get the flu jab for £10, which is worth the money to balance out the very real issue you've outlined.

Realistically the NHS cannot provide it for all due to cost, so it is entirely right they focus on health related risk groups. Single parents as a demographic are not a clinical need.

But if their wage is being made up to a minimum living of standard why should they be entitled to a free flu jab over people who are at a minimum living standard with no help of UC? They are now at the same pay level so why would one get it free and not the other?

The people you have mentioned are more likely to end up in hospital. It’s about hospitals not been over run.

For future reference Superdrug is the cheapest place to get the flu jab.

That’s why I said “low income” and not “in receipt of benefits”. It should be for people earning under a set household income, regardless of whether it’s through UC or work.

As others have said, flu doesn’t mean “a very nasty cold”. It’s a specific virus. You can’t know you’ve had it unless you’ve been tested. It’s very early in the season for flu, much more likely to have been covid or a bad cold based on timing alone.

I paid for a flu jab a month ago. I’m now in my third week of being horribly ill with first covid (tested so I know that’s what it was) and then either lingering symptoms from that, or another cold. Having the flu jab does nothing to protect you from covid, colds or any of the many other illnesses that can make you really unwell. It doesn’t even stop you getting flu, just makes it milder (and doesn’t even do that if it’s a different strain of the virus from the one you’ve been vaccinated against).

I think people sometimes think that the flu jab is a magic preventative to stop them getting any seasonal illness. It isn’t, and that’s why it’s only on offer on the NHS to those who might become very seriously ill if they got that one specific thing, the actual flu.

But the flu jab is a private service if you're not eligible for the NHS free one.

Why does a single Mom getting it for free take precedence over a single Dad? Or a woman in an abusive relationship?

Because ultimately it's cheaper than picking up the pieces if a sole carer for young children can't cope? Also why wouldn't single dads get it - the criteria would be lone parent?

Simply because you can't help everyone is no reason to help no one.

There is a government committee who looks into all this every year. If it was cheaper to give lone parents (or any other demographic unlikely to be made very seriously ill by the flu) the jab than not to, that would be the recommendation. It isn’t, I imagine because parents are likely on the whole to be young and healthy enough (barring other conditions which might then make them eligible on the basis of those conditions) that they are unlikely to put pressure on the NHS by becoming dangerously sick. And the “pieces that get picked up” will either be done so by an unwell parent soldiering on somehow, or by informal networks of support - it must be rare that there’s any cost to the state of a parent being unwell with flu or any other common illness.

Because the OP specifically stated single Moms should get it for free.

I'm ignorant though, what is the cost of picking up the pieces of single Moms having the flu and being unable to cope compared to the cost of giving the flu jab free?

I have got Hashimotos which is also an autoimmune illness. That by itself doesn’t qualify someone for a flu jab. It depends on the treatment I believe.

Fortunately I work in a patient facing role in the NHS so I get annual flu and Covid jabs that way.

If you work, have you checked if your employer will reimburse you? I only found out recently my employer will reimburse up to £20 as does my husband's, public sector. I guess the benefit to them being less sick days (and spreading).

New mums aren't offered a flu jab because they are not clinically vulnerable whereas pregnant women are. It's that simple.

An illness being inconvenient for you is not a reason for the NHS to give you free vaccinations, it's a reason to pay for it yourself.

There is a £20 note on the floor. If you have a cold you will pick it up. If you have 'flu you can't be arsed to pick it up because you feel so unwell.

Rubbish - as with most viruses people get it with a range of severity. The only way to know you have flu is to be tested for it.

Also, I may be overthinking this, £20 is worth different things to different people. The poor woman I spoke to at the soup kitchen the other day who has £10 to feed herself for a fortnight and had hauled herself out of her sick bed with at the very least a heavy cold just to she could get a free meal, would be much more motivated to pick up £20, whereas my millionaire boss probably wouldn’t break stride for a £20 note even if mildly unwell.

I think under 2 year olds can be vaccinated but it has to be the injection; not the nasal spray. I think my sons was done when he had his 2 year old jabs.

Thanks for all the replies.
To answer a few of the questions that keep cropping up. No @cheezncrackers I can't be sure it is flu, however, I have not felt this bad since I had swine flu many moons ago. Even if it is is "just a bad cold" it's highlighted to me a very important issue that caring for a baby as a lone parent when you are sick, and worse caring for a sick baby when you are sick, is extremely difficult.
@YellowphantGrey Of course . I couldn't afford to go out and pay for a flu jab tomorrow, but after this week it is something I will prioritise
@RolaColaLola agree! I'm not saying lone parents should be prioritised over people at risk of being hospitalised, but I still think it would be a great thing to do for different reasons.

If there are any doctors here, I'd love to understand this! All 2-3 year olds are given a vaccine. Why is an 18 months old less vulnerable? Vulnerable 6 month olds are given a vaccine. If it is about balancing risk wouldn't a good strategy be to vaccinate the parents of under 2s so they are less likely to become ill? Again, I have no medical experience, just genuinely interested.

Carers are offered the vaccine even if the person they are caring for isn't at greater risk, so I wonder why the same reasoning wouldn't apply to line parents of young children

As an alternative suggestion, taking on board some of the comments. I don't think any lone parent should be turned away if they ask for a flu jab because 1. They are struggling to afford it 2. They are worried about childcare if they fall sick. That way it's not just being handed out, but those who need it can still be vaccinated?

@YellowphantGrey in my AIBU question I did specify single parents, not necessarily single mums (i know I wrote that in the title so understand why you thought that). I did clarify in my later posts

We cross posted, @Journeyintomelody.

2 and 3 year olds get the vaccine as standard. Under 2s get it if they have a health condition, but not as standard; as it’s not particularly effective in younger ages, it seems; and flu isn’t particularly prevalent in younger children.

Parents don’t get it by default. Pregnant women do; to pass on some immunity to newborns.

You can't think of any potential consequences and costs stemming from a small baby's primary carer being unable to care for them properly? Or knock-on impact in terms of stress/impact on household finances and consequent harm to the child's welfare and development? What about child neglect/eviction/food poverty? When families are in a precarious position, it can take surprisingly little to tip them over the edge.