FLU JAB

[Sarahjano]

Hi guys just wondering on some of your thoughts and advice on this. I'm 34 years old and 18 weeks pregnant with my 1st child and have been advised by midwife to get the flu jab. I recently had a bad cold and it was awful as I couldn't really take the usual Sudafed nasal spray and plough through. However I'm over it now bar a few sneezes and coughs now and again. I've never ever had a flu jab but I'm dubious about it. I've read and heard it even gives you cancer! Also the obvious "it gives you the flu". I'm also working full time and currently now in my "qualifying weeks" so I can't afford to be off work with the flu symptoms if I get the jab! What should I do?

Because even though it's a national health service it still has to pay for medication?? And some of those trials the drs are paid to say it's more effective than it is?? Idk call me a conspiracy theorist 🙄 but everything is business

Yes, I understand the NHS has to pay for medication. So why would the NHS recommend pointless or harmful treatments which they then have to pay for? I doubt the NHS just takes the word of pharmaceutical reps and just dishes out drugs on their say so. If the idea was just to get loads of people to have the vaccine why don't they recommend everyone has it and then pay for it? It doesn't make sense.

You’re a conspiracy theorist.
Your evidence that medics are paid to lie?!
The NHS recommends vaccinations to try and save money. They want to avoid people becoming unwell with these illnesses.

@bumblebee doctors are not paid to lie about the effectiveness of vaccines. It would go against their Hippocratic oath.....you'd never get enough of them to agree and keep quiet about it.

I had mine yesterday, felt awful all day, tired and sick - today fine, just a bit of a sore arm. Beats actual flu anyway!

I had mine on Tuesday I’ve had no side effects not even a sore arm

I'm In the same boat. I've NEVER had a flu jab and I've never had a Flu. I'm reluctant to get it! I take vaccines and I'm not anti vax but I don't see the point in this. Everyone I know who gets the jab gets sick all through winter and I never do. If I get a cold it's usually a day or two and I take nothing for it. I realise your immune system is weaker during pregnancy but since I've never had any kind of flu I'm not sure I want any bit of influenza in my body 😒

I can only give you my experience which was 10 days ago. I was 10 ish weeks and had the jab. Within a day I felt shocking! Aching, so bunged up...I know everyone says you can't get flu from it but I was pretty sick, coincidence maybe but I cried for 2 days I felt that rotten.

@momoa80 exactly it's brutal even when not pg. I'm so torn

I had mine last Thursday at 12+5 just gave me a dead arm for about 12 hours. I was coming down with a stunning cold before I went for it doing but it cleared up the day after, weird. The midwife told me flu could seriously harm my baby don't understand why people would risk that x

I had mine last week. Mildly sore arm but other than that I was fine. I think we are lucky to have the option to help protect ourselves from flu.

They dish out antidepressants when their efficacy is shocking...

They recommend low fat diets even though they rarely work (sending people to slimming world on prescription and the like)...

So yeah I don't think it's always best practice. They might think it's right but actually the flu vaccine is often wrong and the efficacy is very low so actually I don't think it is best practice.
I don't think doctors do these things maliciously, they do so because that is what they are told to do and what the research tells them to do and the research is often done by the very companies who benefit from the purchase of these drugs treatments and vaccines.

Don't think big pharma doesn't affect our little NHS because that would be naive... Yes I may border on the conspiracy side but to not be critical at all? That's the problem...

Had mine with bad cold brewing as was struggling to breathe anyway due to big baby sitting high so prime candidate for complications. Had sore arm for a day, moved on. Still nagging DH to get his so we can get DD done with the live nasal spray. At least if he gets the vacc he's less likely to pass on bug from preschool germ factory to newborn. He's fine with it in principle just short of free time!

I had the flu as a non pregnant healthy adult, I was so ill I thought I might die. It went on for weeks and I didn't leave my bed for over a week.

Flu kills healthy adults. Flu kills pregnant women. The vaccine isn't perfect but it reduces the risk. Feeling a bit off for a couple of days as a result of your body's immune response to the vaccine is in no way comparable to the flu.

I can only assume that people who are so blasé about it have never had proper flu.

I'm 8 weeks. Should I wait until 12? I am just scared to harm the baby in any way during these early weeks. Also worried about waiting until 12 weeks as will be into December then...

@HJ82 It's safe to have at any point in the pregnancy. I had mine on Saturday, at 7+6. My arm was sore for a couple of days, couldnt sleep on that side, but otherwise didnt notice any symptoms.

Some of these pharmaceutical arguments make me laugh.
I mean what do people think the government is trying to do? Kill us all by cancer causing flu jabs.
Or just waste billions on a vaccine that has no efficacy.

Highly unlikely when we are all doing a good enough job of killing our selves with cigarettes, sugar, fast food and alcohol. For which they tax us heavily and make ££££
They don’t need to spend money to give us cancer, or waste billions on a vaccine that we don’t need.

Anything in public health is for prevention to ultimately save money.
I don’t think the nhs does enough prevention actually. But the flu jab is one of the things they do well.

Op if I were you, I’d get the jab.

@Winterwishes I completely agree! Plus the big pharma argument makes no sense at all when it comes to the flu jab, even if you were minded to believe it generally (which I'm not).

If there is some big pharma conspiracy kickback to the government/NHS by getting people to have the flu jab why don't they recommend everyone gets it? Why only certain groups? I'd genuinely love to understand the logic.

I understand the efficacy isn't always brilliant but I don't understand that argument for not having the jab either to be honest. Wearing a seatbelt won't save your life 100% of the time if you're in an accident, still seems like a good idea to wear one to me!