Fed up of hearing about the flu

[SpoonBaloon]

I know I’m being unreasonable but am I the only one who’s getting wound up by the constant coverage of the flu on every national news outlet?

It is December. Of course the flu is going around! Every winter we hear about the NHS being overwhelmed.

I can accept minor coverage but it’s been the main story for days on end and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to stop! And I know the flu kills and people need to be aware to take precautions but surely people don’t need it to be pointed out to them that they have an increased chance of catching the cold or flu in the run up to Christmas?

I was deathly ill with it last year but luckily have managed to avoid it up to now.

Once you've heard it once, i'd say turn it off or switch over. I get what you're saying though as I watched absolutely everything during Covid and it drove me loopy. I was seriously scared for my life and my anxiety shot through the roof. No one needs to feel like that as stress and anxiety can also lower immunity.

I wonder if it's not helped by the fact there was very limited NHS covid vaccines this year. This is likely to greatly increase the spread of covid and I wonder if people were more inclined to go out and get a flu vaccine if they got a covid vaccine at the same time.

I'm not sure what I've had this last week as I've had the flu jab, didn't have a temp and tested negative for Covid but it's bloody horrible.

I went from 'hmm my throat feels weird' to non stop sneezing and being completely unable to breath out of my nose in about two hours last Thursday. Got progressively worse with the most horrific cough the force of which pulled all the muscles in my back and stomach and left my throat raw. Feeling unsteady, washed out, no appetite.

I forced myself out briefly today for the first time in a week as had to run an urgent errand, and needed a 2 hour nap when I got back.

Prior to this autumn I'd not had a cold for 6 years but this is the second round since mid September.

I work in a school medical room and a couple of weeks ago I was seeing more temperatures in a morning than I normally see in a month.

I can see why the media is making a fuss tbh.

We have all had it and its horrid.However when I see stuff pushed out in this way I always wonder what other news they are trying to bury..call me cynical!

I think that would be too hard to cover up. Doctors and nurses would be telling us the truth

Yes you’re probably right and also flu can be worse than Covid in some cases so it probably doesn’t make sense I just wondered .

A heavy cold.

It’s really not that uncommon and it’s not newsworthy!

The stats are dreadful for vaccine uptake and our senior Doctors are warning us there is a crisis.

Hoping this is a reverse and you are actually caring about saving lives....the current flu mutation is an unusual and highly dangerous one leading to severe illness and hospitalisation at a far higher rate.
People in hospital for other things are in danger both from this flu outbreak and from NHS staff being too ill work.

Sorry all that bores you 🤦‍♀️😔

Yes I agree and unfortunately a lot of them are NHS staff.
Why don’t they want to get it I wonder?

Oh gosh your poor DS (and you!).

DD (6) was like this at same age - it always started as a cold, then 40+ degree fever, then breathing difficulties requiring antibiotics or oxygen, then a viral wheeze which had me up every night. At one point she coughed for 6 solid months.

DS (nearly 3) arrived a matter of months before she started getting stronger, and for him it has been relentless vomiting bugs, ear infections, colds and rashes - he had D&V over the weekend, then DD caught it on Tuesday, now she’s finally better he’s broken out in a full body blistering rash that looks like chickenpox but we had him privately vaccinated so thinking it’s HFM (pharmacist’s guess). This is off the back of us all having the cold from hell that’s been going round which lasted 2 weeks for me.

I’m fucking exhausted and I swear I only enter the lottery so I can buy a private island and guarantee NO MORE FUCKING VIRUSES. It’s ruined my enjoyment of parenting since the oldest was 1 and every time they get sick I start physically sweating and feeling nauseated because I can’t take any more yet we HAVE to.

It didn’t even enter my mind before I had kids that a third of the year probably would be spent in this desperate state for at least the first 3 years. I think people wanting children should honestly be warned.

rant over 🥵

Isn’t it rather late to try to get vaccinated? I remember trying last year and they had run out everywhere. This year I was the first in the queue in September.
I work in a school and kids have been snotty and coughing and spluttering for weeks. Almost half secondary classes sick. It makes me very paranoid working in that environment as I catch everything going.
I caught Covid in October - last year it was November, so it feels like winter viral season is a month early this year or something.

I think you’re probably right, and eligibility for NHS Covid vaccinations has reduced greatly. But Covid vaccinations are also widely available in a large number of pharmacies, albeit much more expensive than flu jabs. I’ve been having a flu jab for at least 25 years, and paid for it for most of that time until the last few years, and I was ready to pay for my Covid jab when I had it but my pharmacy did it free anyway.

Vaccine update numbers are very low for the under 65s ...one figure was 35% of those eligible

No the news coverage says there are plenty of vaccines.. a couple of pharmacies have had issues because there has been a run on people protecting themselves

Isnt this what the news is for?
To educate the public and alert them to anythign we need to be aware of?
Its not just to tell us whats going on in europe or trumpland, but i think this is actually a public service, reminding people that the Flu is here early and please dont get caught out and avail of the wonder of modern medicine and get bloody vaccinated.

I had my flu jab in September and DS and I currently have influenza a, bought a LFT on Amazon which has confirmed it. Feel absolutely dreadful

Feels very much like COVID again doesn’t it?

So, in my family I have had the jab and so far avoided it.
Everyone else has caught it. One is better. One has a secondary infection. And one very nearly died and is currently in hospital.
Get your jabs folks.

Every year we hear about nhs being over whelmed in winter - about time they did some proper bloody planning so we could avoid these ‘unforeseen’ crisis

The obvious thing to do if you're sick of hearing about it, isn't start a thread on MN or any other SM to talk about it, surely?

But back to the point. I know people who are also sick of it... they're sick of being ill, tired, chest infections etc. They've been ill for 5-6 weeks now with the flu.
It's worse than normal. That's why you're hearing about it.

My understanding is that current flu strain is more severe than usual and is particularly bad in children, and hospitals are becoming overwhelmed in some regions. In other words, it's not the bog-standard winter flu wave, so it is newsworthy.

Hopefully it might encourage more people to get vaccinated. I'm hoping mine will protect me.

I think they should close the schools early. People working there will be thrilled, myself included.

We've had flu epidemics in the past that never got this much coverage. I'm with you.

Well said. People do need reminding and I have had a friend very ill in hospital with it recently. She was on oxygen and is still not well.

Someone asked an expert on the radio if this was like covid. He was astounded and pointed out that was a massive exaggeration.