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Flu Jab..ugh!


ditchman
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15 hours ago, JDog said:

Perfectly normal for some people.

There are so many strains of flu. I  don't understand how they can inject with one strain and expect it to be a cover all. That doesn't work. 

 

I wondered about this too. Did some research, and its mostlyl based on the HN virus, that originally morphed from horses, hence the "H". The HN virus's take a known circuit around the globe annually. They start in Asia at the beginning of the year, and get to us by late autumn/winter. So the science on which strain to vaccinate against is largely forecasted. It might also be the case, as Ginger Cat says, there is a bit of a cocktail based on more than one virus doing the rounds. 

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Had my first one a couple of weeks ago. Visited to make an appointment at GPs - not answering phone. She said you can have it now. Nurse took hold of my arm and said "right". I said " Right what?". She said I had just had the injection. After realising she wasn't joking - I left. No side effects whatsoever.

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My wife and I had our jabs at our GP surgery yesterday.

A slightly achy arm (myalgia) today. The surgery gave us a fact sheet which lists myalgia as a 1 in 10 side effect.

I have had the flu jab for the past 45 years and had only one concerning adverse reaction - felt like flu and had to take to my bed for a week.

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9 minutes ago, ditchman said:

im feeling a bit better today...im allright but i still have a sore lump on my poor ole arm...not as painful as yesterday...

all these bloody injections ive had...........i will proberly die by being stung by a triffid or summat

Glad you are feeling better Mate, still better than catching the flu!

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On 03/10/2020 at 17:58, JDog said:

Perfectly normal for some people.

There are so many strains of flu. I  don't understand how they can inject with one strain and expect it to be a cover all. That doesn't work. 

 

I have always thought it was just a bit of a lip service to keep the great unwashed quiet!

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On 03/10/2020 at 17:58, JDog said:

There are so many strains of flu. I  don't understand how they can inject with one strain and expect it to be a cover all. That doesn't work.

Correct (largely);

  1. There are many strains of flu - but typically only one of two account for the vast majority of cases, and they can predict reasonably well which ones are the most likely each season based on what has happened in the southern hemisphere in their last season (flu outbreaks rend to occur in the cold season).
  2. What you are injected with typically covers 3, 4, or I think even 5 strains ........ not just one.  There are different vaccines for the young, the general population, and the elderly who don't easily build up immunity from a vaccine.
  3. It doesn't cover all, but may well be correct for a considerable majority (if they get it right, which they have a reasonable record of doing).  However - the level of protection doesn't prevent everyone getting it even if infected with 'predicted strain'.  It will stop many actually getting flu, and will probably reduce the severity for many others, but not work at all in some cases.
  4. If it works reasonably well in 'most' cases, it hugely reduces the virus's abilities to propagate through the population, so we have a mild flu season because it doesn't spread widely.  If they get it very wrong, and it fails to work in most cases - then we will have a severe flu season

You pay your £12-15 (or prise it out of the NHS for free if you are lucky) and take your chances - which are quite a bit better than if you didn't have it.  Personally I would willingly pay to reduce the risk of proper flu, which is a very nasty illness.

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On 03/10/2020 at 18:48, VicW said:

I spent 28 years in the RAF so injections were a regular thing

 

 

operation "pin cushion" I remember it well, The most I got was 6 jabs in one day .

My old  Sgt had a jab and was down for a fortnight .

At first I laughed , Then realised I would be doing two jobs until he was well again 🤬

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15 hours ago, wascal said:

operation "pin cushion" I remember it well, The most I got was 6 jabs in one day .

My old  Sgt had a jab and was down for a fortnight .

At first I laughed , Then realised I would be doing two jobs until he was well again 🤬

When I married my wife she hadn't had one jab in her life (blame the M-I-L who relied on neighbours etc to bring my wife and her sister up 😞 ) and was joining me out in Cyprus (RAF but at Episkopi) - had to have ALL her shots. Its funny - I now take great humour in that after 26 years :D

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Going for mine in the morning. I have been having one every year after having my spleen out some 30 years ago. every year is different some years I can feel fine other years my arm hurts for days and some times I get to feel quite unwell after it. my mother had hers last week and said her arm hurts and she felt quite flu-ish, I guess its one of those years.     

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On 03/10/2020 at 19:06, GingerCat said:

Its normally a mix of the 5 most common that year. Quite how they know what will be the most common I don't know but there it is. 

Didn't know about the five strains. Trivalent, I'm aware of and this cocktail seems to given to the most at risk. The problem with the  flu virus is that it mutates hence different strains of flu,  unlike most other viruses - fortunately small pox or polio don't mutate. 

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I well remember passing out as a boy seaman at the Stalag training camp HMS Ganges 18 months teaching us how to survive in the RN at that time 1950s. No one at that time knew what ship you would be sent to or where it might be so they covered all options. You queued up and had numerous jabs in both arms which did not work very well for days on end. I ended up in Portland UK. Not a lot of yellow fever there!

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11 hours ago, Balotelli said:

Didn't know about the five strains. Trivalent, I'm aware of and this cocktail seems to given to the most at risk. The problem with the  flu virus is that it mutates hence different strains of flu,  unlike most other viruses - fortunately small pox or polio don't mutate. 

Didn't see JohnfromUK's post before I posted. His explanation is comprehensive and spot on. I forgot about the quadrivalent vaccine but as John said, the number of valencies refer to the number of flu strains. Sounds as though I'm lucky and suffer no adverse effects to the vaccine. But if you do catch flu, proper flu, and not a bad cold oft deemed flu, you will know about it and be bedridden for a week at least. 

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