If you have the flu jab do you worry you’re still going to catch flu?

[solarlights]

Spoke to a few friends this week, all double jabbed for coronavirus but all anxious about going places in case they catch it. It got me thinking about the flu jab. Same friends get the flu jab then don’t think twice about catching it all winter. One friend has mild asthma, they’re all aged 40-50 but otherwise they’re not particularly vulnerable to any illness.

The trouble is, what 'flu' are we talking about? The 'flu' that the person in work with just a snivel has; the flu that makes you feel off colour for a week or so; the flu that puts you in bed for two weeks; the flu that puts you in hospital for a few days; or the flu that lands previously very fit people in intensive care, ventilated and in need of ECMO?

Different people can get the same strain of flu and the impact is vastly different. It's the same issue with Covid. My annoying little cough could be your death certificate.

As it happens, I do have a healthy respect for the flu. Because I've looked after those previously very fit people who ended up on ECMO and with tracheostomies. I've also had the flu that put me in bed for two weeks, mostly sleeping, despite being vaccinated. Having said that, life goes on and you have to live it, so society is going to have to find a path through this.

Yes, I definitely worry about flu and have done for years! I have had flu several times since having the yearly flu vaccine. It hasn't been as often as before I had the vaccine, but still, every few years. I'm much more vulnerable than your friends, so I really don't want to catch it.

I think people are worried about catching Covid because of Long Covid. We don't have Long Flu and although anyone can get post viral complications which are essentially Long Flu (as I understand it) it's not widely known, whereas everyone who's heard of Covid has heard of Long Covid.

Yes, because I know it's still possible to get it. I can't say it's a massive source of stress, but our prevalence of flu day to day in the winter is likely lower than what COVID is now (obviously we don't offer widespread testing for influenza though). I am still very conscious that a flu jab is not a guarantee that I won't get flu.

Yes I would do if we were in a pandemic flu season. I've had covid and 2 jabs but have underlying health issues and although I'd be fine and probably just have a mild illness if i caught it again it takes me weeks or months often to recover from anything properly which is really stressful so whilst I'm still doing normal things I am worried about getting it or flu this year.

Well yes, no one got around to coining 'long flu' and no one really gave a shit.

I've currently got Covid. Double jabbed. Pretty certain I had it in Feb 2020, and what I've got now is more like a bad cold compared to last time.

I'm also asthmatic and have an annual flu jab. A few years ago I caught flu before I'd had the jab. I ended up very rough with two lots of antibiotics, and oral steroids because my chest just couldn't cope. Had to redo all my asthma meds over the following 12 months as well.

So, yes, flu is always on my mind. Last year was wonderful because I didn't even catch a cold (only time I was ill was the awful 4 weeks with covid type symptoms in February /March but they were nothing like a cold tbh).

I like the phrase "long flu"! Yes, I have had "long flu". I went from being exceptionally fit to struggling to do anything for a year or so. I won't bore you with all the many and strange symptoms. I am particularly worried about long covid, although I haven't been able to find out if people who have had long flu are more susceptible, maybe because long flu isn't really seen as a thing.

We need to mobilise around a diagnosis of long flu and hope is gains some political capital, get some research and services going and then go after the goddamned log burning stoves and the asshats who defrost their cars by leaving the engine running in the winter. Who's with me?

Yes I do. I've had flu 2x in 14years and that was enough!

I don't normally worry about flu, because I get the jab every year. AND all my family get the jab (primary children get the nasal spray and all the teens/adults in my family have qualifying conditions). AND all my colleagues get the jab every year as the local authority give us enough vouchers for all school staff to have it, and a friendly local pharmacist comes into school to do "staff flu jab morning". So the majority of people I come into contact with get the jab every year which makes me quite relaxed.

With covid, on the other hand, the majority of people I come into contact with have NOT had both doses of the jab. Children aren't allowed the jab yet, and I spend my entire working life surrounded by children/teenagers. At least 10 staff at my school (out of about 100) are currently ill with covid, having had at least the first jab. And they are not all just suffering cold symptoms (the ones who just tested positive today are feeling fine, the ones who've known they were positive for a few days are not), some of them are feeling really, really rough.

No because I don't know anyone whose had flu after being vaccinated but I know two people who've had covid after being double jabbed.

I am not clinically vulnerable but when it's flu season I do my very best to sanitise, open windows etc. - and this from way before Covid. But I don't 'worry' about it because at the end of the day, life is not risk-free and trying to worry about the risk of catching it once I have taken sensible precautions is simply too stressful.

Not normally, no. I've had flu twice in 40 years, it doesn't feel like something that is especially prevalent in day to day life. However, certainly if I knew four families with flu in one town, as I do now with Covid, I might think about avoiding busy places with lots of children.

Plus, Covid is a more serious illness than flu. And flu made me feel utterly, utterly awful... so knowing that cases are high at the moment, and knowing what we've all learned about infection control over the past 18 months, it seems sensible to me to take care until cases are lower.

The effectiveness of the flu vaccine is around 40-60%. That's flu illness mind, nobody is testing the asymptotic and the mildly symptomatic for flu.

I don't know if worry is the right word. MN seems to have this binary view that gets repeated in most covid threads that assumes you are either living like it's 2019 and happy to catch covid tomorrow, or you're hiding behind the sofa and haven't even opened a window for a year to keep covid out.

In reality most people take a balanced view at this point and are getting on with things but still doing their best to avoid catching or spreading covid. So in the same way, I don't actively worry about flu but I don't want to catch it either. When I worked in an office, I used to keep my distance if colleagues were ill and wash my hands a bit more. Most of us also have some natural immunity through having had flu previously, so it's not exactly comparable to a novel virus.

Plus, Covid is a more serious illness than flu.

Not for the people who die of flu it isn't. And it's certainly not for infants and children.

Yes. I can't risk getting ill as a lone parent with a challenging child. I pay for my own flu jab, eat well and exercise to hopefully swing luck in my direction.

I had flu once a week after having the vaccine and it was dreadful. I have worried about flu every year since.