People saying they’ve never had flu?

[Cumbrianlassie]

I find this incredibly strange. I’ve had flu several times in my life and I’m 36, I mean the ‘proper’ flu - body aches, fever, skin pain, headache, cough, no appetite, fatigue for several weeks and weakness.

I had it in January, as did my DS and DP.
Havent had this new strain yet but feels inevitable!

Are some people just immune?

Yes I heard another one once: if someone was at the door with a million pounds for you, would you get out of bed to get it or would you roll over and not give a shit?

Too many people conflate colds with flu, it always annoys me when people say they’ve got the flu yet they’re managing to text, get up, eat etc.

I had flu as a child and again in my 20s. Never known anything like it and wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

You clearly haven’t read the thread because it has been stated multiple times throughout, that flu can range from mild to severe enough to kill and can even be asymptomatic. It’s a myth that it cant be flu unless you are literally unable to get out of bed.

I'm 62. Never had flu. Had flu jags since swine flu time. I was a GP so exposed to a lot but really only ever got one cold a year throughout my working life.
My parents were similar...think my dad had flu once and rarely got colds.

My first husband had horrible flu one year and I didn't catch it.

I haven't had a cold since late 2024.

But if you are ill and have no choice but to get out of bed, looking after young children etc, then it could be flu that youre just powering through with strong pain medication?

It’s almost funny (but more infuriating) that every time anyone points this out, the next post says something about being close to death and leaving £50 notes lying about the place. Not a single poster, not one, has said ‘Oh, I didn’t realise you could have mild symptoms or no symptoms. You learn something new every day.’ I used to believe all that stuff too. It was passed down for generations. But I think it’s about time, in these days of having facts at our fingertips, and having been through a pandemic caused by a virus, that we all understand how a virus operates.

Flu
Comes on suddenly
Feel wiped out
Fever, muscle aches, exhaustion
Need bed rest
Dry cough

I've definitely had these kind of symptoms multiple times in my life.

My son had them recently and needed 1 day off school.

How did you test her?

I’ve only ever had it once, when I was about 20 at university. It was December and lots of Christmassy fun things were going on and my housemates tried to encourage me to get up and join in but I could barely make it to the loo let alone help make a house Christmas dinner or go to the students union for the annual Christmas Ball - in fact two of them had to help me get to the loo on one occasion.

I am fortunate to be generally very robust and I don’t often feel unwell but that floored me. Those who’ve never had it are most fortunate!

I’ve had it twice and am still deaf in one ear from it. It’s not much fun.

I think the spectrum of cold symptoms and flu symtoms overlap, so flu and a cold are pretty indistinguishable without testing.

I doubt that some people get many, many more doses of flu than others (adjusting for vaccination), so it's really about language and mindset. Some people will take to their beds and declare it "flu" at the first sign if a sniffle, other will still call it a "bad cold" and carry on even when they're fairly unwell. Most people probably sit in the middle, call it a "cold" if they feel OK to soldier through, and only "flu" if they really can't. Impossible without testing to know who actually has flu and who has a cold though, whatever they call it.

I'm 35. My immune system is none existent and I've never had the flu!

I'm 60 and have certainly never had flu which left me weakened for several weeks. I've had several illnesses which might have been flu, ie, aches and fevers, bedridden for several days, but they could equally have been heavy colds. I certainly don't recognise the old 'if there was a £20 note on the floor, you wouldn't have the energy to pick it up' definition of flu.

My DM is in her late 80s and I can never remember her ever having a cold, let alone flu. She did get Covid mildly a couple of years ago but that was over in a few days. She is now vaccinated against both and I am still very careful when I visit her.

I read somewhere that research has suggested that there may be a link to blood group. I think it is those with Blood Group A that are more immune.

I’ve never had it, touch wood, I’m 44

I don't THINK I have had it. I have had grim miserable colds with many symptoms, but I don't think I have ever been as bad as people describe the flu.

I’m a GP and am sure I’ve had “proper flu” with super high fever for days, extreme fatigue and awful muscle aching several times in my life, particularly when I was in my 20s actually.

I don’t get it every winter but when I have had proper flu, it’s almost always been over the Christmas holiday period which is such a bummer. I remember in 2020 thinking how lovely it was to feel fully well at Christmas for once (if it’s not flu it’s norovirus - I actually tend to get this several times nearly every winter, it’s a nightmare - or at least a horrible cold or sore throat etc). It was a revelation to me that it was in fact possible to not be ill at Christmas every year!

I do have asthma and obviously frequent exposure to such things is a hazard of the job! I’m not worried about my immune system at all though, I think this is normal allowing for my occupation (I do think I get norovirus more often than most even accounting for this, and we know some people genuinely are more or less prime to this due to genetic variations, but most healthcare workers I know get it at least once a year, and I wash my hands obsessively lol - I read a thread here recently from someone in their 40s who was having it for the second time only in their life and was very envious!)

Of course we now also have COVID to add to the mix which currently seems to come in waves around 3 times a year including in wintertime. I’ve had that several times as well. Feel extremely unwell every time I have it, completely wiped out and a bit out of it, completely unable to work or function at all. And all of this is despite vaccination etc.

I agree some people can have the flu virus without realising it as they just have cold type symptoms, however I will say that it’s a bit unreasonable for some people to say they just soldier on with the same symptoms as others who don’t, it’s really not just about mindset for someone with a persistent fever of 40 plus etc! Flu can stop even the most determined person in their tracks for a bit.

I've had proper flu about 10 times in my life, my immune system sucks especially as a kid. DP has never had it, he's very rarely ill (though when he does he gets very sick along with a chest infection). DD is 11 and had it when she was a baby, it was horrendous, I make sure she's vaxxed every year now and hasn't had it since. Currently half the school are off with it, we live across the road and the playground is the emptiest I've seen it since COVID restrictions.

i've never had flu, I always get the vaccine. mad anyone doesn't, worth paying for it.

I don’t find it odd at all. Dh has never knowingly had it, and I’ve only had real flu once - the kind that knocks your stuffing right out for at least 3 weeks, even after you’ve started to feel a lot better.

OTOH I do know plenty of people who think they’ve got flu when it’s apparently just a bad cold - since they are able to carry on much as normal.

You can have flu like virus and you can have full blown flu. I’ve had flu symptoms a day or two in bed and got through.

but I’ve also had flu very very ill, when I was 12 so over 50 years ago now. I was soo poorly I can remember dad carrying me to the bathroom. He employed a nurse to come and help care for me but did as much as he could himself. I was in bed for weeks. I had covid a couple of years ago and it was very similar just a faster recovery well for me anyway

No, I've never had flu.

Just bad colds.

I was told once that the difference between flu and a very bad cold was that if you put a tenner on the floor and tell someone with a bad cold they can have it if they pick it up, they will, but someone with flu won't. This was many years a go when £10 was worth something. 😂

If you are regularly getting flu then that's unusual. Why not pay for a flu jab?

I've had it a couple of times in my life, I'm 50. Flu jab every year and total avoidance of crowds if they've got it wrong. Or a strain mutates like it did this year after the vaccines were put together

A lot of people think a heavy cold is flu so think they've had it a lot I've noticed.

I had two incidences of the 'can't get out of bed' illness, once in my twenties and once in my 30's, I'm now 65 and haven't had that again. However, I've had nasty viruses with a temperature and aches, and some which have made me need to lie down. I've never been incapacitated since though, but I put a lot of that down to having been a single mum, and now living alone. I just couldn't take to my bed, so maybe I now soldier on through illnesses that I might have gone to bed with a couple of decades ago?

Some of the 'walking about' viruses have been pretty nasty and, given the choice, I might have gone to bed and thrashed about for a week, but I just couldn't or my dog would have starved (or, even worse, my kids!).

So I wonder if some of the perception of flu comes from how able you are to take to your bed?

I have had flu once in my thirties now mid forties but generally never get a cold, get nausea, muscle aches sometimes throat pain but they generally last 12- 24hrs.

You're lucky. I couldn't stand up when I had it. Had to crawl to the bog.

I was a bit arrogant that nothing could fell me and I could keep going, before that like.