Winter Flu Jabs - for or against?

When we lived in York, they used to have a competiton to see who could give the most flu jabs! You had to be careful if you went more than once over that period, and make sure you told them you'd already had it.

Done! Most efficient nurse yet - didn’t realise it had been done. Set aside tomorrow to potter in case I feel under the weather. Last year was fine but other years I have ranged from mildly tired to feeling completely awful.

But I can be smug in the knowledge that I am doing my bit to avoid if at all possible an extremely unpleasant deadly virus and at the same time not being a pain clogging up the health service entirely needlessly because I’ve had the flu jab.

Well apart from a sore arm yesterday, feeling fine.

Had my first this morning aged 64..fe a bit spaced out but that could be due to getting up at 4.30 to take OH to work as I needed the car...was also told due to my age I qualified for the one off pneumonia jab..

Which reminds me, I must get organised and go to the drop-in session this morning. Wouldn't miss it!

Yup it is amazing isn't it. I think the cockerels probably have a pretty good hit rate. They can probably tell if the egg is fertilised by shining a bright light through the eggs or something like that.
Gosh ASDA used to be £8 - which was roughly the cost of the vaccine. They'll be hoping you do some shopping at the same time! Boots is £12.50 and local pharmacists maybe cheaper. But I'd willingly pay £12.50 to not have a single day of flu.

The fact that the eggs have to be fertilised is mind blowing. I’m just thinking of the logistics of putting sufficient hens to sufficient cockerels; cleaning the eggs but then checking every single one has been fertilised.

I’m guessed it must all be done by some sort of automation process.

And that’s 500,000 a day.

I was waiting for my prescription at the chemist`s this morning, and the pharmacist came and asked if I wanted the flu jab. I`ve been having them since I was 65, but missed out last year. He asked me to stay for about 5 minutes to make sure I was OK, after warning me that I could have a sore arm or feel unwell for a couple of days. Well, my arm is fine, and I feel OK, but for some reason I was extremely lethargic all afternoon, don`t know if it was to do with the jab or not. As I was leaving, he also informed me of the risk of
anaphylactic shock!

Well, I've just had my first ever flu jab today in Adsa for £5. I'm 63 and have already had flu earlier this year and a chest infection and don't want another. Can't aford the time off work. So far my arm is a little sore but otherwise I feel ok. £5 well spent I think!

They do have to be fertile.

Does it say fertile eggs ?????..

Just off to get mine have had it for the last I don't know how many years since getting flu in the 80s which all but killed me. Never had it since. DH has just had his and meningococcus vaccine- we are both immunocompromised and don't take chances - or get reactions either.

wow! Interesting. Somewhere there are chicken farms supplying fertile eggs for this niche market.
I inspired young friend who has just started Cambridge to get one today. She reckons she can't afford a day off, let alone a week or more. Sensible girl.

Ain’t it just!

Fascinating Anya

Thought this might be of interest. And yes, they are looking at other ways of producing vaccines, but early days yet.

CardiffJaguar there is something else to consider.

It sounds unlikely, but you can't make a flu vaccine without breaking a few eggs.
The only manufacturer of the flu jab in the UK is Novartis, based Liverpool - which makes 30 million of the jabs a year for the global market.
Chickens play a crucial role in the process.
Hens' eggs began to be used to grow the flu virus in the 1940's because they provided the right conditions and nutrients.
Five drug companies now manufacture the world's flu vaccines and 70 years later all of them use eggs to grow the vaccine.
The NHS buys nearly 16 million doses a year.
The person in charge of quality control on the Novartis production says : "Twelve times a day we get a delivery of 12 trolleys full of eggs. Each trolley has 5,500 eggs, so half a million each day. They stay in a warm room which is kept at constant temperature of 20 degrees Celsius."

When the eggs have come out of the warm storage room they are inoculated with a small amount of flu virus.
He added: "Each needle will go into an individual egg and inject it with 2 millilitres of flu virus. They then get taken into incubators for 72 hours.
"About 40 trolleys go into the incubators which are temperature and humidity controlled to 35 degrees Celsius and the virus inside will grow.
"When the eggs come out of incubation they go into the harvest area where we use a huge egg cutter to take the top of the shell off.
"The blade runs across the top and a probe will suck out the allantoic fluid, the liquid near the edge of the shell, and that is effectively a version of the flu virus. We start this process at 6am in the morning and it continues for eight hours."

The eggs are sourced from special farms based in the UK, where tight biosecurity controls and immunisations guard against diseases which might damage egg quality.

Thanks Anya ?

All my family are in the UK this weekend and have flown in from numerous destinations, I didn't want to be the one who caught flu passed on by plane passengers so have had my vaccine.

My first ever jab this year. No effects what so ever. Being as i have returned to work with the elderly one day a week i am glad i had it done, they cant pass to me and i more importantly as i mix more, wont pass to them.

48 hours on from having my jab. No effects of any sort not even a sore arm.

My understanding of the vaccination is that it is harmless because it does not contain any ingredients. Every germ has an identifiable picture in 3D. Our immune systems are recognising the pictures of good and bad matter, lesving the good ones but attacking the bad ones.

So it recognises the picture of the latest flu jab and fights that if it arrives in our body. It does not need to know whether the inside is harmless or bad, it just fights it.

Latest research is trying to replicate about 10 flu virus pictures in one jab and making this so that a yearly jab may not be necessary. I know that the flu virus changes but somehow science has a way of dealing with this.

For the record I have never had any reaction in all the years I have been having the jab. My wife, however, has had a sore arm some years but no reaction. So it must depend upon the person, not the jab.

Each to their own.

My DH and I are having flu and shingles jabs tomorrow.
Much rather a sore arm for a day or two then a week in bed!.
2 of my friends are retired GPs and my best friends DH is a retired GP and others members of her family are doctors as is my DDiL. They all agree that it's better to err on the safe side.

NanKate

Found this hope it helps.

I'll be having it - must remember to make appt!
Have only had real flu once, but it knocked my stuffing right out for a full 3 weeks. Especially since I now have very little Gdcs I see a lot, one of whom has been in hospital 3 times with bronchiolitis - thankfully, touch wood, he seems to be growing out of it.
Even when I was considerably better after my dose of flu, and out with dd walking the dog, I remember her saying, 'Can't you walk a little bit faster, Mum?'
'Sorry, darling, I really can't.'

People who call a bad cold 'flu' are apt to get a very nasty shock if they ever get the real thing.