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?

Christ don't do this if they check the records in audit and it's found you don't have a valid maternity exemption certificate you'll be fined.

Christ don't do this if they check the records in audit and it's found you don't have a valid maternity exemption certificate you'll be fined.

No she won't. You don't need a maternity exemption certificate - or any proof - to get a flu jab.

It’s an absolute myth that flu is always severe. Last year my son almost died from it and the whole family was swabbed. All of us were positive, two completely asymptomatically and me only with very light cold symptoms. Testing is the only way to tell.

If you've got/being treated for Lupus, you're in the free flu jab group.

@Medstudent12 this 5 year UK study, testing antibodies before and after each flu season, concludes that 18% of unvaccinated people catch the flu each year, and the majority are asymptomatic (23% with symptoms).

While it can, obviously, be a very nasty illness, it's not true to say that the majority are incapacitated for long periods.

I voted YANBU, but tbh it might be a quite sensible just to offer it free to everyone.

Expensive at the time but then surely good for the economy through fewer sick days being taken? And yes does mean that people with no one to back them up can carry on with important responsibilities including childcare.

What did your GP or consultant say when you asked if you were eligible for the flu vaccine (and even Covid) because of the lupus?

www.nhs.uk/vaccinations/flu-vaccine/

Yeah, you won't be costing anyone any money because you just push through on your own. It's hell though. I just got through a protracted 2 weeks of me/my son being sick. I think now it took a lot longer to recover because I can't rest and let my body fight the virus. And now we are better but the house is a tip because I let a lot of housework slide. Gaaah.

I have had it but you have my sympathy- I did this while ill with covid last year it was hell

Have you thought of asking your GP surgery? They were offering them to people in the waiting room in my surgery last week. I got one and I don’t meet any NHS eligibility criteria.

I hope you’re lying cause you’re totally wrong.

There’ll be some knobs who claim to be a single parent to cover themselves 🤷🏼‍♀️