Flu admissions are up

I wonder if it's because the age available has quietly risen to 65. I got challenged today when I went for mine I'm 63 but have other eligibility so not an issue for me. But the pharmacist said they're having to turn people away or charge them. I'm interested to see if being back in offices and the rising retirement age changes the stats too.

The articles I've read about this is also stating the reasons for A&E being overwhelmed is also due to time wasters going to A&E with things that can be dealt with at home, by a GP, or via 111. These time wasters should be either sent home with a flea in their ear or charged for wasting time.

Had the jab, got the flu that was awful, but could have been worse if I wasn’t jabbed.

I m afraid I would never go back to wearing useless masks

BlueBelle

I m afraid I would never go back to wearing useless masks

Is that because you can afford the better ones or would you just not wear a mask?

Why can't you wear a mask?

I doubt that wearing masks is all that effective.

In my opinion, people should be encouraged to be vaccinated, to wash their hands more frequently - every time they blow their nose, for instance, or come home from shopping, and not to "chance it" and go out amongst others if you suspect that you may be coming down with a cold, or the flu.

Increasing standards of ordinary household cleanliness would help too, How many of us wash floors once a week, clean door handles, or wash bedlinen on the hottest cycle?

For years we have been told that we protect the environment by washing clothes on the cooler, shorter cycles that use least energy and water, but if doing so increases the risk of infectious diseases spreading, is it really such a good idea?

SueDonim

My medic dd warned us yesterday to be careful about flu as the numbers in A&E have ‘exploded’ this week, according to her. She said flu jabs and hand washing/sanitiser are the best deterrent. The evidence for masks is quite poor but it seems that a mask helps stop the spread if you have flu but doesn’t prevent one from being infected.

I’m a bit worried now as we were in a hot and stuffy primary school environment yesterday and my Dh is vulnerable. No one there seemed ill, to be fair.

The evidence for masks is not poor. You need FFP2 or ideally FFP3 masks though. They need to be worn correctly. Rooms need to be ventilated, or the air needs to be cleaned with HEPA filters. It's basic physics.

sparkynan

Wearing a mask will not protect you from flu as the droplets from a sneeze or cough can enter via the eye. The only good thing about masks is, it stops you spreading germs.
I personally would hate to have to wear masks all the time like during Covid times
I had several vaccinations for Covid and wore masks but still caught covid 4 times over 3 years.

That is simply not very likely.

Mollygo

Thats really funny CA.🤣🤣🤣
You giving a verbal kick to people who wore the masks they could afford because you didn’t approve of them.

You didn’t own a mask back then? How did you avoid spreading your germs?

There are a lot of pro plague people around. Something I had never appreciated until 2020.

I can never recall which "Big Virus" type things have been around since I was born (1953) - but do recall there has been 4 or 5 of them in my lifetime (not including Covid).

There was no Big Panic/Lockdown/"you vill wear masks" stuff for any of the ones previous to Covid. I was never aware/none of us were aware of the previous ones. But what we do know is they were all prior to the Internet being here and widespread. Hmmmmm..........and in other words the Government had nothing they could do - as we couldnt be told "lock yourselves indoors etc" as happened with Covid.

Most odd to call "pro freedom" the misnomer of "pro plague".

If anyone wishes to wear masks = that is entirely up to them obviously. If they wish people to be restricted - then it is entirely up to them (ie to restrict themselves - as they are the ones that want restrictions).

If they do decide to buy masks and want more than those blue flimsy paper ones - they're not that dear. The more expensive type can be bought for less than £1 each (assuming buying a large pack from Amazon). £1 per day they choose to go out = £7 per week if they choose to go out every day.

Hi Ladies sorry to barge in but I need to start up a new thread and can’t see where to do it. Can anyone help. Thanks.

Seabreeze

Hi Ladies sorry to barge in but I need to start up a new thread and can’t see where to do it. Can anyone help. Thanks.

Look at the top right hand corner of the screen is a little arrow, click on this and a menu will be revealed on it is ‘start a new discussion’ just click on this
Xx

LaCrepescule

Are you serious - get everyone to wear masks again? Get vaccinated and just get on with it. I don’t know a single person who’s had flu so far and I have a big social circle.

I am the same as regards your last sentence.
Makes me wonder where all these people are supposed to be.

When I wrote this earlier upthread, I was expecting a whole help of people to come on and say they knew however many of people with it.
But they havent.

So I am carrying on wondering what is actually happening?

Lomo123

My daughter works in a large hospital she said there are several wards full of people with flu. The staff were instructed to wear masks today.

Can I ask which hospital please?
Or if you would rahter not say, which part of the Uk?

^ If they do decide to buy masks and want more than those blue flimsy paper ones - they're not that dear. The more expensive type can be bought for less than £1 each (assuming buying a large pack from Amazon). £1 per day they choose to go out = £7 per week if they choose to go out every day.^
Fine for you if you live alone, but working on your maths, 5 masks per day (2 parents, 3 children,)
Thats £5 per day or £35 per week. Easily affordable? Even if you’re not poorly paid and your children are not below the poverty line? That’s a sizeable amount.

Options - go out without. You don’t care either about whether you’re spreading your germs to others or whether they’ll pass theirs on to you.
You won’t expect to be treated by the NHS staff not wearing masks and certainly not if you’ve got Covid.

Stay indoors. You can’t work and earn money, but after all, you are restricting yourself.

Buy expensive masks. If you can afford it you get the double bonus of being better protected and feeling virtuous.

Or . . . Wear a lanyard.

I cant say I am reading or following all the posts on the site today.
So no idea whose "side" I am on.

But dont people who wear masks reuse them?

I cant remember from 5 years ago, but thought I reused mine.
But there again, if a person is using them for a full day, that is a different matter.

The whole use of masks thing was often most peculiar during Lockdown.

Cue for a (already planned) visit to my dentist shortly after the start of it all. So I duly rang him and said "I can see I count as priority 2 - ie I'm not in pain...but I do have an appointment I'd made anyway before all this. I understand if someone else is priority 1, ie in pain, and that's fair enough if they get my appointment instead and I have to make another one". He agreed I was priority 2 and no-one was in pain waiting and I still got my appointment.

Cue for one of them was at front door handing out masks people were being ordered to wear. It was nowt short of daft...as I put it on and literally ran the 20 seconds it took to reach the surgery room and whipped it straight off in there (as that was allowed there). Had my treatment (obviously it would have been literally impossible to wear a mask if I'd wanted to during that) and then literally ran the 20 seconds it took to get back to the front door. So 40 seconds of wearing a mask during my hour or so visit. Duh! I didn't even stop around at the reception desk to pay them - I'd already agreed with them over the phone before I went there that I would ring up after my visit and pay them by card over the phone (so I couldnt be forced into a mask for an extra couple of minutes).

The buses were still running to some extent and I'd normally take one of them to get there and back (as it's 15 minutes away by car). But I didnt wish someone to start an argument with me and thought there was a chance someone might be in a bad mood and do so - so I booked a taxi both ways (knowing they'd tell me to sit in the back seat that time...rather than chatting to the driver upfront...and they had a plastic "curtain" thing they'd put up between those seats). It all felt a bit farcical all round.

Like 40 seconds of forced mask-wearing was going to make a scrap of difference...

I do and I don’t.

Sorry. IOMgran I should have clarified that I meant the ordinary flat masks most people wore during Covid, not the FFP2 ones.

Even those aren’t easy to get right. My medic dd is very petite and the NHS struggled to get one that fitted her small bone structure. She graduated from med school in Spring 2020 and worked in hospitals all through the pandemic (including without any PPE to begin with) but didn’t get Covid until 2022.

The school of thought is ….. wear a mask if you have cold symptoms or feel one may be coming on.

Let’s face it. If you didn’t want to wear a mask, you’re going to decry the wearing of masks and you can produce a string of reasons why they were unnecessary. The same reasons Novax use about refusing to have vaccines.
On the other hand, if you never caught Covid, it may well be thanks to all those people who did sneeze and cough into their super strong or even cheap masks, and who got themselves vaccinated to try and protect themselves and others.
Equally, you might have spread your germs among those who couldn’t afford the super strong masks, but did their best with what they could afford.

I last had what I would call full blown flu at the beginning of January 1987 when I was 31. I could hardly lift my head off the pillow for 10 days. I was mortified as the previous day I had started a new job and thought I’d be sacked but my employer was fine.

I’ve had fluey colds since but nothing ever as bad again.

SueDonim

Sorry. IOMgran I should have clarified that I meant the ordinary flat masks most people wore during Covid, not the FFP2 ones.

Even those aren’t easy to get right. My medic dd is very petite and the NHS struggled to get one that fitted her small bone structure. She graduated from med school in Spring 2020 and worked in hospitals all through the pandemic (including without any PPE to begin with) but didn’t get Covid until 2022.

My daugfhter is an anaethetist and she worked the Covid wards intubating people. She wore FFP3 masks and managed to avoid Covid. I have COPD and also wore FFP3 masks before we had vaccines, and for quite a while after. I did not get Covid until 2 years ago at a party as I had abandoned masking by then. I got it again this year in the summer, it did not go to my lungs that time. I have had every booster offered and paid for one a month ago too as I have under 75. As far as I am concerned FFP3 masks work well, the science is well understood. I have a science and engineering background and both the masks and the mRNA delivery mechanisms of the vaccines made perfect sense to me. I spent 2020 being very concerned about my daughter as they were struggling to get decent PPE and she was working in the hot wards in close proximity to patients and doing aerosol generating procedures like intubation. I have zero time or respect for antibvaxxers and the awkward squad who wouldn't even wear a mask to help other more vulnerable people. Their behaviour was and is abhorrent to me.

Would just like to say - I am one of those people that cannot have a flu vaccine, cant have the shingles one either so it is not always as easy as having your jab, I have had every Covid one that has been available apart from one when I actually had Covid, mildly I might add. So I am one of those that will be wearing a mask as I have already said..