'Flu jabs!

Jingle all the big supermarkets and Chemists offer appointments any day of the week. My DS decided he would have the flu injection last year (any age can apply) and he walked into Lloyds Pharmacy with no appointment and they did it there and then.

Depends on the pharmacy jing ASDA pharmacy I just rolled up.Boots you usually have an appointment. Depends on staffing and whether they have vaccine in stock all the time.
Oh FFS bloody DM has run another scare story about autism and vaccines again. Really, really irresponsible of them.
www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-153722/Mercury-flu-vaccine-linked-autism.html
Thiomersal is only being phased out because anti-vaccinators keep worrying at it and using it as an excuse. Despite huge amounts of research vaccines do not cause autism. Not a shred of evidence.

That's terrible that some organisation is lobbying to get rid of Thiomersal. What's a little mercury between friends? Bring it on!

That's the second FFS I've seen on GN today - both from respected posters.

There are so many variations of flu and really bad flu-like colds (yes, I've had both and don't call the occasional bad cold I get, 'flu') that it's often possible to be inoculated and then catch something else. They decide which kind(s) of flu are likely to be rampant but they can't inoculate everyone against every strain. And there are 'vulnerable people' out there who won't have been inoculated - small babies, for example.

I do not have the flu vaccine, not because of any scare stories about side effects or death but because nobody in my family has ever had flu. My parents never had it either.

Since I do have erratic reactions to medications, whether swallowed, injected or placed on my skin and neither my family nor have I had flu, even during epidemics when we were in crowd situations; boarding school, live in barracks, it just seems to me that currently, in the absence of me having health problems of any kind, there is no pressing need for me to have the inoculation.

DH is recovering from manful but I've got a headache reading this lot.

I've suffered with man Flu! Believe me it' s debilitating, we need constant care from you Ladies ,,,Ha ha,
All jokes aside, I have the Flu Jab booked for the 1st Oct, 2014. I've had the Jab for a few years: and find the benefits outweigh any side effects. I totally agree with the statement below.

"If you give a jab to hundreds of thousands of people every year a few of them are going to have heart attacks, a few are going to have strokes and quite a lot are going to get ill from mild colds and other flu-like viruses in the days following. These events were going to happen with or without the flu jab . But the flu jab can get blamed because most people look for reasons for things happening.
There are hundreds of viruses that can give you feverish cold symptoms. The flu jab will not protect you from these - but it will protect you from the 3 most prevalent influenza viruses that are circulating in the world at the moment."

DH and I have had flu jabs long before our 65th years - him because of his reduced immune system (and he seems to get a "special" jab) and me as a teacher in case I went down with it and brought the virus home. I was very glad we had been vaccinated some years ago when SIL went down with swine flu just before DGS's first Christmas and we would not have been able to spend Christmas Day with them (selfish of me or what?) DD had been vaccinated during pregnancy and DGS still had immunity from her.
Neither of us has ever had any unpleasant side effects so if in doubt - I go for it!

WHO thinks a trace of thiomersal is fine for infants, no risks been demonstrated, so I don't think us GNs need to fret as we are somewhat larger. And most of us have been living happily with mercury based dental fillings for decades.

www.who.int/vaccine_safety/committee/topics/thiomersal/statement_jul2006/en/

The anti-vac lobby in the states is constantly searching for new justifications as to why immunisation is dangerous. In some parts of the world the anti vaccers seem to be slightly "alternative" types. You can get an exemption from "you must have your child vaccinated before it goes to school" rule, on the basis of "personal belief"
In LA there is a worrying rise recently in whooping cough etc. amongst wealthy (its fashionable?)
www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-vaccination-crisis-20140903-column.html
In the states there is also an anti-government-telling-us-what-to do brigade who believe in their right to stash armouries in the woods and not have their kids vaccinated.

NanKat, Where did you get the shingles vaccine privately from? I would be willing to pay having seen my mother in terrible pain in her head. My elderly neighbour was poorly for weeks as was a friend. I'm won't be 79 for two years. My surgery said you only have to wait 2 years.

Sara4 I asked my doctor to recommend a private clinic and they gave me the name of a surgery in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire called Doctor Now. It was expensive but the peace of mind is worth it as my Mum too was very ill.

Most towns have private surgeries that you will find on the Internet. You could always ask your local chemist to put you in touch with a private doctor.

You may find that your GP will be willing to do the injection for you, but charge. I also think that the vaccine will be free, it will be supplied on prescription and it is only the inoculation process you pay for, so I should start be inquiring at your surgery.

I am having mine on the 26th, it always seems to be on a Friday and I am always poorly by Sunday. Every year they ask if I have had a reaction, every year I tell them I was ill enough to have to go to bed and every year I am told that it is not possible and I must have been sickening for something

JessM don't get me started on the anti vaccination lot in America! Some of the comments you read online make you want to eat your own head. A lot of bad science mixed with "I feel it must be true therefore it is" And they let these people have guns!

We start flu jabs next month and will be having one. Never had any reaction except a slightly stiff arm and I haven't had flu either.

Thank you NanKate for the information, I shall follow it up starting with the chemists.

No way. If you're healthy, why would you?

Because you don't want flu? It's nasty and trashes 2-3 weeks.
It infects the healthy just as often as the unhealthy. The only difference is that the previously unhealthy are more likely to end up in hospital on oxygen. Hence the government funding their jabs. When you are older your immune system is better in some ways - it recognises a longer list of bugs because you have encountered them before. However it becomes less good at defending your lungs against pneumonia. This is irrespective of any other aspect of your medical history.