petition for under 5's to have swine flu vaccination

[loganberry12]

does anyone know if there is a petition set up for this year? im really concerned that our children are not being offered this i may even start one myself if there isnt one

Just saw about that little girl on the news

Terrifying.

I really don't understand why they were offering it to under-fives last year and not now.

Department of Health are saying that they are not going to review this decision this year but will look at it for next year - is it a money saving thing ??

I have added this topic to campaign requests for all children

It's all politically-driven bullshit. The govt don't care about children because they don't vote. How they can defend giving it to the over 65's regardless of their health yet deny it to the young, especially the under 5s, is sick beyond comprehension. They are all middle-aged men who could not care less about children and families. The fool who came onto MN to talk about swine flu stated that the reason they were not vaccinating unhder 5s was because most of them had either had it (the flu) or the jab. What about the ones who have been born since last March? What about the ones who didn't have it?
I cna tell you one thing: if a flu jab available for the over 65s last year had been withdrawn ths year we would never hear the end of it. This country is run by the babyboomers for the babyboomers.

Also, in the USA and Australia they do vaccinate definitely under fives, possibly even the older children. (info available on Centre for Disease Control website)

There are various threads where you can your children privately vaccinated, some GPs apparently do it, some travel vaccination clinics and private paediatricians (like Portland hospital London).

You do realise by the time anything gets done about this, the vaccines get given and two weeks are allowed for them to take effect that it will be well past flu season? I think people need to calm down. The risk is still very small - it has just been over reported by the media.

I was called yesterday by our GP surgery and told that I should URGENTLY vaccinate DS who has asthma and a history of allergic induced breathing difficulties. I agreed to take him in tomorrow to do so.

Tonight he had a fever of 38. I called them to say in the circs can I come on Monday and they said 'you can but we probably won't have any more vaccine by then, and we aren't getting any more'

I'm bloody annoyed. And I have just found out I can pay £30 and have it done privately at a hospital 30 miles away. Which is great (for me) but I am thinking not everyone can (a) get to a hospital 30 miles away and (b) afford it.

There isn't any vaccinations left anyway is there?

Whomoved, my thoughts exactly. I really do think we're seeing the start of the privatisation of the NHS.

My DS is under 5 and has asthma and a prescription for the vaccine - but everywhere here is out of the vaccine. We couldn't have had him innoculated in the autumn, as he hadn't had a definite diagnosis by then.

As for that poor family on C4 News... absolutely heart-breaking.

bubbleymummy - I'm very calm about this - I think both of mine have had it - I know I have because I was tested positive - but it's the inequity of the situation which is making me cross.

I am not surprised that under 5's were not offered it when the take up was so poor last year.

Last year there was thread after thread of people up in arms that the Goverment were trying to use children as 'guinea pigs' for an un-tested vaccine.

This year everyone is desperate for it, it make no sense to me, children died last year too.

I do think it is very bad that there is not enough vaccine for the at risk groups.

To the op, there is no point petitioning now, the various flu viruses have peaked or are peaking and the vaccine takes around three weeks to take effect, shuting stable doors and bolting horses spring to mind.

I have to agree with bubbley and werethewildthings.

Ds had his flu jab yesterday, he was confirmed asthmatic 2 months ago and this was the first point he was fit enough. He has got the last vaccines in the practise.

If he wasn't asthmatic I wouldn't have had it done. I don't think 50 deaths from flu nationally (5 in children) is enough to lead to panic like we are seeing tbh. Tragic for the families effected of course but so is any death.

It is not just the deaths but also how seriously ill they get so quickly. DD (5) hadn't been well for most of December (fever close to 41 degrees many days in a row, then few days low fever, then high again) saw several GPs over this time. All said it wasn't flu. Last week she had severe breathing difficulties, needed oxygen and anti-biotics drip. X-ray showed severe chest infection. Now we have been contacted by GP saying that she had secondary infections due to flu ... She will not be in the statistics though. So the actual figures we hear about are most likely to be an underestimation of the true costs of this flu.

It is now 112 deaths - doubled in one week. I can see why folk want their under fives vaccinated, its okay sitting there saying it is all hype but think about those families whose child has died from swine flu when i could have been prevented. Not everyone gets it mild!

Only doubled because there has been delayed reporting over Christmas. Last year there were a lot more deaths from swine flu ( even though there were still relatively few in comparison to seasonal flu) and people were not running around the country trying to get their under 5s vaccinated. I think there was about a 20% uptake on the vaccine for under 5s last year. Nothing has changed except more of us are now have natural immunity to it.

Well, you see, I'd like my son to have the vaccine in any case precisely to build up his immunity for next year/the next round of flu. And like you Sirzy, there's quite often a fairly narrow window when he can get it done for exactly the same reason (hence the 6-month delay in getting his MMR done).

And if the vaccine does build immunity for next year's flu season, doesn't it still make sense to petition the govt. to ensure that we're not in this situation again? Especially in view of their determination to cut costs.

ok so lets all say hey swine flu is bugger all, how about all the healthy people ending up dead or in intensive care, are we going to say oh well its nothing. This is not killing over 65s it is killing young people and half of them are healthy with no health probs. So far seven of them at least have had the jab. And if more of us have natural immunity to it why is there more people in intensive care than there was in the pandemic? Ireland is now in an epidemic. Hospitals are running short of intensive care beds and normal wards are having to shut to make room for swine flu patients, all ECMO machines are in use (that includes the extra ones bought in) and this was not the case in the pandemic. This is not the case in a normal flu season either.

But lets not forget hey its mild and nothing.

Ok well let's all get hysterical even though cases are now decreasing or levelling out. Let's get completely hyped up over 100 flu deaths even though there can be thousands in other years that never get reported. Yes this flu may effect more younger people but overall it is killing fewer people and the majority of those who are dying are those that have been identified as at risk. Stop getting sucked in by the media hype.

However you look at it most of the fatalities are in those who are at risk so of course they should be the ones being targeted.

some facts and figures from BBC website

Nobody is saying its mild, or its nothing what people are saying is there is no need to panic about it and get yourself wound up about something that most likely won't happen.

According to this 3000 - 4000 deaths are normally attributed to flu each year. makes the 100 look less scary of course!

Few folk keep saying its mild and nothing to worry about, thats what ticked me off, its not mild for everyone. Overall more folk in intensive care.

And cases are not decreasing in Scotland or Ireland, infact they are increasing.

Not saying we should get hysterical but understand why some are concerned and wanting to get vaccinated. As a mother of a daughter with asthma (who has been vaccinated), of course i am concerned.

I think it matters rather a lot that this flu is killing young people. Elderly people will die of something, often things like flu, of course it is horrible to lose a loved one. But young children dying is a totally different thing IMO especially if it is preventable. I have seen how quickly my dd deteriorated and if I had listened to the GPs she would now most likely to have been dead ... they simply did not understand how ill she was. The hospital saved her and the hospital told me next time to go straight to A&E rather than GP as time runs out quickly with young children. The ward was full of little ones with secondary infections after flu. They were very very ill, nothing mild at all and not a few either, paediatric ward was struggling to find enough beds. I think that those in charge are underestimating this flu.

But young healthy people including children die every year from the flu, but they are a tiny minority, just as they are this year. In a country of 64 million people, just over a hundred deaths does not a crisis make.

In the winter of 1999/2000, 22000 people died of the flu, all strains of flu are serious and nobody is saying swine flu is 'nothing', however for the vast majority it is a mild. self limiting illness.

The media are making such a meal of this.

I don't agree. My dd is just back from hospital and nearly died because of this flu. My dh had it in Summer 09 and was terribly ill. This is just my personal experience, but clearly my personal experience is a lot more important to me than what doctors or politicians say as they have misled us so often.

But personal experience and official figures don't always agree but the official figures paint a much better overall pictures.

Bronchiolitis nearly killed Ds but that doesn't mean I argue the fact that it is, on the whole, a relatively mild virus that clears itself for most.

I have had normal flu and swine flu (confirmed) and the normal flu was worse in my case but that doesn't mean it is always so.

My dd was ill a lot at the time the vaccine was offered to under fives; by the time she was better the receptionist said they weren't doing any more flu jabs as they needed ten people at a time booked in for it to make it worth opening a batch.

Stupidly, I didn't push it, because it never occurred to me they'd never offer it to under fives again. At the time I remember thinking oh well no harm done, there are hardly any cases at the moment, it's probably better to have it closer to next winter than now, anyway. Then when I asked early this winter they said no, no more for under fives.

Maybe they should have advertised the jab for under fives last year as "LAST chance to be vaccinated for winter 2010-11, roll up roll up! One-time offer only!"

But they didn't do that - the Pandemrix jab was seen as something for then, not the future, so once cases started to drop people obviously stopped booking jabs. Only if that peak of cases had gone on for longer would there have been a higher uptake.

And I think this may be where some of the anger is coming from. If they had never said under-fives needed vaccinating against SF, then there might be some concern now that perhaps they should be. But there wouldn't be the anger. That comes from them offering it for a short while and then withdrawing that offer, along with the lack of an alternative way of getting it for most children (chemists not doing under 16s for a tenner the way they're doing adults). So some parents of under fives are feeling worried, powerless and cheated - hence angry.