the flu jab

[5siamese7]

I see here in Scotland its going to be offered to school children and not just people at risk and old age pensioners. I have been getting it for the last twenty years and have only had flu twice which was mild I guess because of the vaccine. Prior to this I thought on one occasion when I had the flu that I was going west.

[Hughie]

It's been bad here in Oz this year - don't know if we are ahead of the UK with this current strain but it's caused lots of deaths mostly in retirement villages - many are in lock down. We always get our jabs before our southern hemisphere Winter.

[morag]

Wouldn't go there if you paid me. Don't like shots (unless...) wish I'd never had them or had my kids have them

[bobnetau]

Read today that the flu shot only lasts for 4 months and we should get a second shot to get us through the rest of our winter here. Never had a second shot, have you Hugh?

[Hughie]

That's a new one on me, Netta. Purposely had an early morning appointment with my doc last week to miss any coughing and sputtering in the waiting room.

[glenshena]

Wouldn't go there if you paid me. Don't like shots (unless...) wish I'd never had them or had my kids have them

My mother in her eighties never had a flu jag. Her friend in Argyle Road got one and she died two weeks later.

[bonzo]

I don't think I've ever had the flu (touch wood) I know people are apt to say they have it when it's just a cold.

[5siamese7]

I don't think I've ever had the flu (touch wood) I know people are apt to say they have it when it's just a cold.

Bonzo I agree. The flu knocks you for 6 and your fit for nothing. The worse cold doesn't compare. All you can do is go to bed with paracetamol (a nice name for a lassie) and drink loads of fluids and try to sweat it out. The jab has been great for me though twice it gave me the flu. Its a dead vaccine and the powers that be said it was a coincidence.

[glenshena]

Reportedly there are umpteen varieties of flu, so how do they know which preventive vacine to give?

[5siamese7]

They try to predict which strains will hit the UK. How they do this ? I imagine some kind of statistical analysis. Most years we are told that we will be hit by a flu epidemic which usually doesn't happen. I expect its a marketing ploy to use up the vaccine because it will be less effective next year as flu strains change and a new vaccine will be needed.