Flu jabs in US vs UK

[Star555]

As an expat in the US for many years (healthy adult with no underlying conditions), I never got the flu jab on a regular basis until last year after Covid started. (Of course I got the Covid jabs and other one-time standard jabs like hepatitis etc.)The American GP I see for my annual physical exam always told me to get the flu jab but I refused. It never made sense why back home I would only have to get the jab during pregnancy and then annually after age 65+, whereas in the US everyone including children, regardless of age, is told to get the jab annually.

Other expats in the US -- did you and your DC get the flu jab annually pre-Covid? Besides financial reasons (e.g. US can afford jabs for everyone annually but the NHS is poor so only offers it to at-risk groups, US has fewer holidays so workers can't afford to be ill with flu), is there any scientific basis for why healthy people should NOT get the flu jab each year? If the NHS offered free flu jabs to all ages annually like the US, would you and your DC get it in the UK during normal non-Covid times?

I also got a shingles vaccine the other day - it's offered to all over-50s here.

We haven't had the flu jab in the last four years.
I had a very confused conversation with a Pediatrician after a couple of years of being in the USA about the dc not having had flu jabs. Me explaining that they didn't have any vulnerabilities so I'd never considered it.
The doctor being confused as the relevance of this.

@Hopeisallineed

I’ve never had a flu jab. Wouldn’t have occurred to me really but this year I might.

How can it never have occurred to you? You must have been aware of its existence, right?

It never occurred to me to have one because in the UK they were just for older people or people with health vulnerabilities.

I never bothered until one year I got the flu, at Christmas. Since then I've had one every year.

US has fewer holidays so workers can't afford to be ill with flu),

Im confused by this @Star555
Are you saying workers in USA have to use their holidays if they're off sick?

@ecceromani

US has fewer holidays so workers can't afford to be ill with flu),

Im confused by this @Star555
Are you saying workers in USA have to use their holidays if they're off sick?

It depends on the employer. There's no statutory sick time. Some employers give separate sick and holiday time. Some give a single block of time off to be used for all purposes.

One thing I think the US does do better is the schedule of visits with the pediatrician/family doctor for babies and children. They actually did catch things I wouldn't have spotted so early.