On balance I think I won't bother. I was only offered it for the first time this year, when I turned 50. It was February and past peak flu season so I didn't go for it. But it is, and always should be, an individual risk assessment. Despite the scare stories of the dreadful bugs we're all going to get, I am not particularly concerned and happy to trust my immune system. I have had the flu 3 times in my life and it's been awful, but not so awful that it gets anywhere near to 'I need a vaccine' status. Now Ebola.... If that was working its way round SE England... Entirely different kettle of fish! I am healthy (as in really healthy, not Daily Mail healthy which seems to actually mean 'morbidly obese but haven't waddled to the doctor yet so dont have a recently diagnosed illness' ), and fit, and still have a kid at school so my immune system gets frequent workouts. Don't feel half as strongly about a vaccine against flu, which can be dangerous to younger fitter people like me - unlike Covid, which is vanishingly unlikely at affect me badly - as I do about the Covid vaccine, which is a nonsense.
Flu is more of a risk to the younger demographic than SARs2 is.
But that risk is still very low.
That's why this whole thing is insane - we've abandoned basic public health principles of only vaccinating those at risk into vaccinating everyone, including all of those at no risk at all.
Most people get Flu once or twice in their lives and its bloody awful. Far worse than covid for most people.
But we didnt jab everyone we could find despite that.
Any evidence as to whether it is sensible/risky to have an mrna booster for sars cov 2 and whatever the local flu jab is on the same day?
As with everything covid related, of course theres no science.
Since the field came into existence, modern medicine has required proof of safety and benefit before an intervention.
Since covid thats flipped to "everything will be done until we can prove it not safe or effective".
It's destroying all faith in public health - a Flu jab should be about as non-controversial as it gets yet i know people now who arent having it due to the governments constant "get jabbed 15 times for everything or we'll take your life off you" messaging.
Hello everyone. This is my first post here.
I was surprised to read someone say it's "the same formula as always" for "the" flu vaccine. That is untrue. Flu vaccines change every year.
Don't even think about taking a flu jab unless you have long been serious about using methods of strengthening your immune system that really are "tried and tested" and for some reason they haven't worked for you. These include making sure you get enough vitamin C (not mixed with artificial sweeteners - duh! - but as it occurs for example in orange juice), iron, vitamin B12, vitamin D, etc., as well as exercise, preferably in the open air, and making sure you're not obese. If you can list say 8 things you do every day to keep your immune system in good shape - and I mean things that don't come with any risk and aren't patented or provided by Big Pharma - and you still fall down with flu or severe colds every year, you'll be a very rare person indeed.
