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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Anyone worried about this new flu?

298 replies

Starrynight999 · 17/12/2025 08:16

So my kids in 2022 had flu A and my 2 year old got sepsis after being ignored by doctors s just a virus for a week after multiple trips, he recovered and he is ok.. skip to last year they then got flu A again a much milder strain but we’re still very poorly and now this year it’s everywhere again and seems to be an awful strain and I’m just dreading it.. before anyone says.. non of us are vaccinated we are to to date with all vaccinations and I’m really not an anti vaxer.. but I don’t know how I feel about the flu spray if I’m honest.. doesn’t look like they are working much.. I’m just also anxious about it.. how is everyone else feeling?

OP posts:
Doteycat · 18/12/2025 11:02

ThatAgileRosePanda · 18/12/2025 10:55

Children didn’t seem to be badly affected by Covid, it was older people at more risk. With flu, young people can be very badly affected. During the1920s flu A pandemic young people seemed to do worse than older people.

My 16year old was the sickest Ive ever seen a person be sick, outside of the Horrendous ones no one wants to get.
It was the scariest thing ive ever seen and she is healthy as an ox. But this nearly took her out

miss79guided · 18/12/2025 11:04

Baninarama · 17/12/2025 20:25

I'd love to see your oh so wonderful and well educated immune system giving a little tinkly laugh to something like Ebola.

Really are you a doctor ?

The immune system IS a great thing
> Everythin you NEED is already INSIDE you

Move MORE

Alip1965 · 18/12/2025 11:09

MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack · 17/12/2025 08:52

If you want to gamble with your kids' health, OP, then that's your prerogative. It's a shame for the children who aren't protected, but sadly, many children are disadvantaged because of the poor choices made by their parents - that's just the lottery of life and there isn't really much we can do about it.

It does seem very strange, though, that you would start a thread on the Internet worrying about flu when you haven't even bothered to take basic precautions to protect your dc.

Its a gamble either way... what is this vaccine doing to our bodies. What is the flu doing to our bodies. Each to their own choices without the hate would be nice.

Tiredmama11 · 18/12/2025 11:15

@Notsureibelonghere I think the age they’re eligible on the NHS is 2 onwards unfortunately! I did try Well Pharmacy too but they wouldn’t allow me to book based on her birth date.

ThatAgileRosePanda · 18/12/2025 11:15

Yes I’m worried about it - having had what must have been flu A in my 20s when I really thought I was going to die. I’ve paid for flu jabs every year when possible ever since and haven’t caught it for 30 years.
This year our family has managed to get vaccinated this month after 2 cancellations- I’m hoping we get some protection from it.
The misinformation online from fwits with an agenda is really sickening.
The worst are blaming vaccinations for the infections.

Hope this clears something up - for the realism challenged out there:

a)The jabs are not a live virus,
b)The nasal spray for kids is a live significantly weakened virus that cannot cause flu because it is not flu any more.

SoLongLuminosity · 18/12/2025 11:16

So you trust vaccines for polio but not for flu?

You know there is a jab instead of a nasal spray?

And just because your kids look fine after civid doesn't mean they have haven't had lung damage that you can't see or visibly measure.

Tiredmama11 · 18/12/2025 11:17

I’m struggling to find anywhere that has appointments at the moment before January for myself. I’ve been in the US for the last 12 weeks so haven’t had the vaccine yet this year. Has anyone had any success booking privately lately?

ThatAgileRosePanda · 18/12/2025 11:22

Tiredmama11 · 18/12/2025 11:17

I’m struggling to find anywhere that has appointments at the moment before January for myself. I’ve been in the US for the last 12 weeks so haven’t had the vaccine yet this year. Has anyone had any success booking privately lately?

Go on the nhs website, put your postcode in, it will show a list of places with calendars. Some places keep running out. And cancel. There was plenty of availability this week, got daughter vaccinated yesterday. She has asthma and couldn’t get one at uni. Hers was booked as nhs. For mine I managed to book a private one via the nhs website a couple of weeks ago.

MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack · 18/12/2025 11:28

Alip1965 · 18/12/2025 11:09

Its a gamble either way... what is this vaccine doing to our bodies. What is the flu doing to our bodies. Each to their own choices without the hate would be nice.

It isn't hate, it is frustration.

People who make poor decisions based on pseudo science are not only putting their own health at risk and that of their children. They are putting vulnerable people who are unable to have the vaccine at risk as well.

There is no medical intervention that is completely risk free, but the scientific evidence in favour of vaccines is overwhelming. People who choose not to engage with that scientific evidence because they have bought into some stupid conspiracy theory crap that they have read on the Internet are making poor decisions which are bad for society as a whole. It is not as simple as "each to their own choices" because some people aren't lucky to have that choice.

Doteycat · 18/12/2025 12:17

miss79guided · 18/12/2025 11:04

Really are you a doctor ?

The immune system IS a great thing
> Everythin you NEED is already INSIDE you

Move MORE

Jesus wept.
Let's do away with all modern medicine so shall we? .I take it you refuse all medical care for everything and will never enter a doctors office?
What with everything you need being inside you?

ThatAgileRosePanda · 18/12/2025 12:19

A gamble? The odds are heavily in favour of catching flu which isn’t merely a bad cold. The Flu vaccine including the kids nasal spray has been around for years.

bonesandbooth2025 · 18/12/2025 12:38

miss79guided · 18/12/2025 11:04

Really are you a doctor ?

The immune system IS a great thing
> Everythin you NEED is already INSIDE you

Move MORE

I’m shit out of luck then as mine doesn’t work

Notsureibelonghere · 18/12/2025 12:47

Tiredmama11 · 18/12/2025 11:15

@Notsureibelonghere I think the age they’re eligible on the NHS is 2 onwards unfortunately! I did try Well Pharmacy too but they wouldn’t allow me to book based on her birth date.

Ah that is a shame!

ThatAgileRosePanda · 18/12/2025 12:52

Doteycat · 18/12/2025 11:02

My 16year old was the sickest Ive ever seen a person be sick, outside of the Horrendous ones no one wants to get.
It was the scariest thing ive ever seen and she is healthy as an ox. But this nearly took her out

Sounds awful! I’m glad she’s ok now x

ThatAgileRosePanda · 18/12/2025 12:59

bonesandbooth2025 · 17/12/2025 21:10

why do anti vax call it the jibby jab? Confused
it’s not like the flu one hasn’t been around for years

They have a whole range of words and phrases for vaccinations, face masks , viruses and those who try to protect themselves and others. It’s a kind of club for people with a very right wing bent who are not very bright.

JassyRadlett · 18/12/2025 13:03

miss79guided · 18/12/2025 11:04

Really are you a doctor ?

The immune system IS a great thing
> Everythin you NEED is already INSIDE you

Move MORE

It isn't, though, is it.

You didn't have any immunity to Covid in 2019. You don't have immunity to the latest strains of influenza. You weren't born with immunity to measles or polio. You have no innate immune response to smallpox were it to make a comeback.

The immune system is an amazing thing. But not in isolation. We don't have everything we need inside us. It's amazing based on its (variable by person, environment and other factors) response to past inputs. We can choose higher or lower risk ways to invite those inputs in.

youwillneverknow · 18/12/2025 14:03

JudgeBread · 17/12/2025 09:45

So it's nearly killed your kid once and you thought "ah fuck it I'll chance it again, he only nearly died"??

Amazing.

Comparison to the covid vaccine is also bone-headed as the flu vaccine has been around a lot longer and has far fewer unknowns. For someone who isn't anti vacc you sure do sound like one of them.

Agree with this.

I am not in a vulnerable group but we all have our yearly flu jab. I had flu in my 20s and even then it wiped me out for 2 weeks. I have had the flu jab every year since then and touch wood I have not had flu! I have had some nasty colds but nothing as bad as the one in my 20s. So I do find it odd when people say the flu jab “doesn’t work”.

For the record I had no Covid vaccines at all. Neither did my 3 DC.

JayJayj · 18/12/2025 14:06

Doteycat · 18/12/2025 10:50

There isnt a chance in hell any doctor said it caused it. You are just spouting that crap to try back up your BS.
Every single one of those illness happen to people, because people can get sick.
Nothing to do with vaccines and everything to do with being a human.
Get a grip.

Why would I lie? What exactly would I gain from it? Are you in my life so know this for a fact? Believe me or don’t that’s up to you. Doesn’t change what has happened and you thinking I’m lying has no effect on my life.
Have a day!!!

MrsTerryPratchett · 18/12/2025 14:20

miss79guided · 18/12/2025 11:04

Really are you a doctor ?

The immune system IS a great thing
> Everythin you NEED is already INSIDE you

Move MORE

I know it won’t work but here goes.

Couple of hundred years ago, around 50% of children died before they were 5. But people had no contraception and lots of children so your immune system worked well enough, because enough people lived. Evolution doesn’t ‘care’. Enough people live, good enough. You might bury 5 children. But the human race continues. Group 1.

We developed vaccines, antibiotics, hygiene and other marvellous things, the child mortality rate goes down to single figures. Almost no smallpox, polio, TB it’s magically wonderful. Your children live. We develop contraception and you can have single figures of children and they will probably all make it. Group 2.

Do you want to be in group 1 or 2?

On causation and correlation.

Causation is when one thing CAUSES another. These can only be proved by scientific method. Typically double blind randomised control trials With a large enough sample size. This method is not perfect but it is the only way to prove something causes another thing without seeing the interaction first hand.

Correlation is when the prevalence of one thing rises and falls with another things but one doesn’t cause the other. For example, ice cream sales go up just before shark attacks. Ice cream sales and shark attacks are both caused by a third thing - sunny summer weather. Or things coincidentally rise together. Coincidences are really common and there are some fun ones on Spurious Correlations if you want to look.

You mate getting cancer, your cousin getting some virus, you getting MS. They may have happened just after a vaccine but you CANNOT say one caused the other. Not because you think it did, not because you googled something, not because you reckon. Any more than I buy an ice cream and some surfer gets bitten. Even though anecdata and correlation tells me it looks REALLY suspicious and coincidental. Life is coincidental.

Casting pearls before swine, I know.

Baninarama · 18/12/2025 15:12

miss79guided · 18/12/2025 11:04

Really are you a doctor ?

The immune system IS a great thing
> Everythin you NEED is already INSIDE you

Move MORE

Nope, but I did a degree in a related subject. Now that you mention it, your body contains e.coli. I can tell you that your urinary tract doesn't need e.coli and if it strays into the wrong bits of you you'll get a nasty dose of cystitis or a kidney infection.

Doteycat · 18/12/2025 15:19

JayJayj · 18/12/2025 14:06

Why would I lie? What exactly would I gain from it? Are you in my life so know this for a fact? Believe me or don’t that’s up to you. Doesn’t change what has happened and you thinking I’m lying has no effect on my life.
Have a day!!!

Anti vaxers lie to try make their cult thinking look a bit more valid.
It doesnt. It just makes them look more ignorant.
Im having a wonderful day. Because im not in the slightest bit worried about anyone in my family getting sick.
Because we are vaccinated.
And not in a cult.

JayJayj · 18/12/2025 15:23

Doteycat · 18/12/2025 15:19

Anti vaxers lie to try make their cult thinking look a bit more valid.
It doesnt. It just makes them look more ignorant.
Im having a wonderful day. Because im not in the slightest bit worried about anyone in my family getting sick.
Because we are vaccinated.
And not in a cult.

I’m not an anti vaxer? Or in a cult.
But apparently, you cannot be wrong and everyone else lies if they know or have had issues with a vaccine. Cool. 👌

Doteycat · 18/12/2025 15:23

JayJayj · 18/12/2025 15:23

I’m not an anti vaxer? Or in a cult.
But apparently, you cannot be wrong and everyone else lies if they know or have had issues with a vaccine. Cool. 👌

I didn't say you were.
Must have hit a nerve....

JayJayj · 18/12/2025 15:24

Doteycat · 18/12/2025 15:23

I didn't say you were.
Must have hit a nerve....

🙄

Sevenwondersofthewoo · 18/12/2025 15:31

freakingscared · 18/12/2025 01:38

Just keep their immune system topped up with good probiotics and elderberry syrup and most kids recover in full .

Say what is this before or after the vaccine?