Flu jab

[Toohardtofindaproperusername]

Has anyone else had a big reaction the to the flu jab? Had it Monday, Thursday left work early and have spent the last 24 hours in bed feeling like been run over by a bus.... painful cough and just feel awful... have hardly moved in that 24 hours ...slept a lot.
Dunno if I have flu/cold, or just a reaction? It hit me suddenly but was such a short time after the jab I thought it was a reaction to it.
Would be good ro know if it's been similar for others this year. I work in nhs but have never had a response like this to the flu vaccination

Lying in bed right now feeling like I've got flu, the works, fever and aches and headache. Had flu and covid jab just over 24 hours ago - was obvious by time I went to bed last night I was clobbered with sideffects. DH, covid jab only, is fine. But then he always is.
Anecdotal only. Not sure about having days of a gap before sideffects though.
Hope you're better soon.

And you. Yep its thw gap that makes me wonder. Never had a response like this to any jab before. Yours sounds more easy to connect to the jab time wise..hope it passes soon..

Thanks. I'm sure I'll be better sometime in the next 24 hours or so.
I remember reading some posts where people had a delay and people said maybe you were already incubating the illness when you had the jab? That can happen I guess, you'll know if you don't get better quickly that you've got the actual illness rather than a jab effect.
So I suppose be prepared to be actually having the flu for a few days. Bleurgh. Rest up.

It's too big a gap for it to be a reaction to the jabs. I felt a bit grotty the next day but within 24 hours I was fine (had jab at 4pm).

No, I didn't have any reaction at all from the flu jab, I had the Covid jab at the same time. No reaction from that either. I'm sure the flu jab is not a live vaccine so you can't get flu from it.

Its an inactivated virus in the injected vaccine, so it can't give you the flu! You might have been incubating something beforehand. Have you done a covid test? Any localised swelling on your arm?

Had a bit of headache/arm ache for 48 hours or so after mine. If you're coughing maybe you picked up covid or another bug?

This is a very long gap for a reaction. Most reactions (which are normal) take 6-8hrs to manifest & are self limiting to about 24hrs.

The vaccine takes about 1-3 weeks to work effectively.

I would say, as a very experienced vaccinator, that you were incubating something before or since the jab. Thee vaccine isn’t live, and it isn’t working yet.

Thank you AgathaMystery. That's really helpful and i'll just expect that i need the weekend to recover.. i must say after 24 hour in bed and barely being able to move, i've started to feel a bit better.. so hopefully it won't linger. Appreciate you sharing your knowledge and experience.

@Toohardtofindaproperusername sometimes flu can hit you like a truck. I’ve had it twice. The first time it came on in about 2hrs. I was in bed for a week. 20 yrs later the same thing, this time 10 days in HDU.

Rest, hydrate, take regular paracetamol and be kind to yourself. Self cert for a week and get a sick note after that. It’s no joke and you need to prioritise getting well before you contemplate going back to work. A shoddy recovery from flu will haunt you for months xx