Stockpiling...

[lynnonthelake]

Well no one likes being ill, but I believe in freedom of choice.

 

[loujareth]

I just found out one of my doctors receptionists has died from Covid, so shocked. I bet they'll be a good intake of yes to a vaccine there.

 

[iloveshopping]

ILATI thalidomide was banned in Germany in1957 or 1958 but the UK still prescribed it until the early 60s as they paid no attention papers being written on the side effects. And it is still around I worked with a woman who suffered awful migraines and was given thalidomide she just had to sign an agreement not to get pregnant this was in the early 90s.

So that problem was countries not sharing info, with something like vaccines it will happen pretty quickly because of the internet.

There are still people who refuse to get the flu jab but suddenly this year they were rushing to get it.

I’ve taken medication where I had to sign that I would not get pregnant whilst taking it. I wasn’t allowed to drink alcohol and had a blood test every 6 weeks. It was a wonder drug (for me) called roaccutane and got rid of acne I had had for 30 years. Unfortunately now I am going through a late menopause and my skin is starting g to reverse back to acne again (aged 66). If this continues I’ll ask for it again.

Well no one likes being ill, but I believe in freedom of choice.

No one will be taking away your freedom of choice or to become infected.

 

[Twilight]

With the exception screening & dental appointments, I don't go near anyone medical. My parents were in their 60s when they died & I can't see me becoming Methuselah's granny, which probably explains why I'm as shallow as a puddle & believe in a short life & a merry one. If I have this vaccination it will be because I need it to travel or to get into somewhere or something, not to prevent getting covid because there are many illnesses that scare me far more than this virus. For what it's worth my Mr T has a friend (climbing) who is a doctor & he said RNA vaccines are safe & effective, he also believes that the virus will weaken & becomes one of the many that we face all the time.

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

I’m not anti vaccines nor am I one of the daft buggers who think it includes a chip I would just like more time to test it.

 

[alter ego]

I shall have it too. I don’t remember anyone having a choice about the polio and diphtheria jabs we got in my childhood. We were just lined up and filed in... I don’t even know if parents were told it was happening. You just knew that your children had these jabs at various ages. And wasn’t it illegal to refuse the BCG thing? I may well be imagining that!

I cannot wait to get the shingles jab!!!!! I was so fed up when I got shingles in January.

Mr AE has about three bouts a year. They haven't been so bad for him pain wise (so far) but have been problematic as the blisters form on his eyelid and around the inner eye.

He's in his fifties and has asked for the jab but has been refused, but told he can pay to go private. A few GPs (though never the locums) have whined about him getting expensive anti-virals.

I hope you get your jab and never suffer with it again.

Well, I had a dither when it was first announced we now have 3 different vaccines. But yes I will get it. With out vaccines Polo, Smallpox and TB would be killing thousands of us every year. Then, of course, the flu which does and can kill thousands every year though they don't tell you that.

Very well said. People have forgotten (or want to wipe from history, as is the fashion these days) how serious these illnesses are and how many they killed. I remember my mum talking in hushed tones about people who had died of various illnesses when I was little. I also remember being marched to the GP for my smallpox vaccine by mum which she hailed a miracle after losing two cousins to it.

Not too many decades ago people were grateful for the 'modern advances' that vaccines are and queued to get them. A few of my daughter's friends have recently requested catchup vaccinations after their mum refused them. Wise girls. And don't get me started on the HPV vaccination that some parents are refusing as they believe their children won't be having sex before marriage or more than one partner (who also in their own little la-la land has never had previous partners).

 

[ERICS MUM]

I had ‘real’ flu 25 years ago and I was so ill I thought I was dying. If COVID is potentially worse, I will definitely have the vaccine.

 

[maymorganlondon]

I think there are a lot of illnesses which are constantly with us that can still kill.
I think many people underestimate the consequences of getting measles, mumps, rubella, shingles etc...just as they underestimate the consequences of becoming diabetic.
There are some diseases like measles that can come back decades after you are first infected, and "recovered" and devastate your life. We are seeing patients who have long covid without actually having a covid diagnosis.
I will take the vaccine risk, rather than the disease risk.
But that is my decision, and while I explain my reasons for my decision, I am not seeking to force anyone to agree with me or follow me down the path to the jab.

 

[SusieSue]

I'm 64 in January, I work in a shop and can interact with over 100 people a day yet despite constant asking my doctors surgery will not give me a flu jab apparently there are not enough supplies due to the high numbers of elderly patients on their lists.

I don't think I'll be offered the Covid vaccine for a long while

 

[lynnonthelake]

I knew 2020 was go to end in Tiers.
on a serious note I wonder if the residents of tier 3 will be offered the vaccine first.

 

[Twilight]

'And don't get me started on the HPV vaccination that some parents are refusing as they believe their children won't be having sex before marriage or more than one partner (who also in their own little la-la land has never had previous partners).'
In my last school I taught many children whose parents were doctors & there were a significant number who were against their daughters having the vaccine. I had retired by the time boys were also offered the protection & can imagine that was also an uphill battle. I know a few people who've said they won't have a covid jab knowing that there's no legal protection if anything adverse happens after vaccination & because they may be vaccinated by a volunteer, who has only received basic training with a darning needle & orange.

I knew 2020 was go to end in Tiers.
on a serious note I wonder if the residents of tier 3 will be offered the vaccine first.

When the vaccine success stories were published there was a list of which groups would get it with some who have certain health issues being prioritised over healthier older people. Children won't be vaccinated until it's been rolled out to everyone else, if at all. Drippy Hancock, that's my polite name for him, has said that it'll be distributed fairly but with half of England in Tier 3 it's a HUGE task. I found this list.

1. older adult residents in a care home and care home workers
2. all those 80 years of age and over and health and social care workers
3. all those 75 years of age and over
4. all those 70 years of age and over
5. all those 65 years of age and over
6. high-risk adults under 65 years of age
7. moderate-risk adults under 65 years of age
8. all those 60 years of age and over
9. all those 55 years of age and over
10. all those 50 years of age and over
11. rest of the population (priority to be determined)

 

[donna255]

I have always been fascinated by the 1918 flu even went to the library and got books out on it. There was a young doctor in Belfast who murdered his girlfriend and signed the death cert she had died from it. He got caught and hung for murder. So there you go obscure fact or what? There are numerous documentaries about it and there was an English scientist who did these and always said something big would come. They talked about SARS which he said we dodged a bullet as it stayed in and around China, the Bird Flu which came in 2010. Oh, they found a dead swan in N.I. which died of bird flu this month. Now people tend to forget about it. They used to give out daily numbers of who had died of it in the local news until they decided to stop.

A member here was a nurse and she said it was so scary they had to wear full hazmat suits even if patients did not have it. A woman around the corner eldest daughter who was 12 at the time and suffered from COPD. She took ill and rushed to the hospital, the 12-year-old had to go into a seal roomed laying on a mattress no bedding with nurses and doctors wearing full hazmat until she was found not to have the bird flu. Her mother and father standing outside the room unable to do anything. People seem to blank out that one and we are only talking 10 years ago.

People seem to forget that at least 50 million people died from 1918 flu and that was a time no flying around the world on holiday. Villages up in the artic were wiped out by it. They now believe it started in the US a training camp close to a pig farm and they butchered their own meat in the camp from the pig farm. This was 1917 and young healthy soldiers started dying their lungs drowning in their own mucus. Then, of course, they all got on ships heading for Europe and WWI. This is the one they all fear and have some samples in a few laboratories. This strain H1N5 is still in the bodies of people who died from it and buried. All they can do is vaccinate every year for hopefully the lesser strains that come.

For Covid just look around the world now how many catching with long term effects after the get over the virus. How many dying still all over the world even now. America now has the highest death rate and it is not a 3rd world country. I think I will be in the 6 or 7 levels to get the vaccine. The scientists have always said the world will not end in war but with a sneeze.

 

[Vienna]

Mr V was taking a passenger to her work in a care home and she was chatting to him about Covid. She told him her husband who was only 41 had died from it several months ago at more or less the beginning of the pandemic. He had no underlying health issues and he worked as a lorry driver so spent most of his working day alone in his cab and she was convinced she must have brought home the virus even though she herself had no symptoms but back then PPE was inadequate and tests were almost non existent for key workers unless they fell ill.
Her husband was of Jamaican origin which the science later discovered made him more of a target for the virus. Mr V said his passenger was still traumatized and was convinced it was she who`d made her husband ill but she needed to work and pay her bills, look after her children etcand trying to find another job was nigh on impossible.
She told him that during lockdown and due to lack of visitors, her face may be the only friendly face the people she looked after may see that day and that she was desperate for a working vaccine which could protect people not only from catching the virus but also from unwittingly spreading it because they are asymptomatic.
She said she is now regularly tested and the PPE situation has improved but its too late for her husband and for the number of residents who have passed away in her care home, some from covid but others from old age, other illnesses or from broken hearts from not understanding why they couldn`t see their families.
I`ve told Mr V he should retrain as a social worker because its amazing just how many of his passengers share very personal information with him.
I`m not yet in a care home and hopefully never will be, I`m not yet suffering from dementia or any other life threatening illnesses but what I do know is that by not visiting my kids or not spending time with my grandkids or not seeing my friends or being unable to enjoy a social life or a holiday or a trip to concert or cinema and so on is making me feel life is just passing me by. Of course vaccination should always be a choice but everything has to begin somewhere and I`ll be quite happy to get it when the time comes.

 

[loujareth]

That's a really sad story Vienna and hopeful because things have moved on from that. As I have already mentioned, we were all (5 adults) struck down with covid in April when we had no tests and just had to live with it. I was at docs again myself yesterday and had spoken with the woman who has passed away from it in the past, just from a talking to for a patient/receptionist angle but it has hit me hard. It's affected a lot of people who knew her as I'm following the notice where I read it on Facebook. The doctor I saw yesterday told me she'd just recovered from covid and said it's just so exhausting.

Both my hubby and eldest daughter are now part of the active covid research and are sill carrying antibodies and even though me and the hubby have been in contact with a positive, my hubby had two tests and both times came out negative, worked from home and my daughter and I isolated, she also did a test and came out negative too. Also my daughter has 12 weeks of fortnightly home covid tests, I'm amazed by that and pleased.

 

[iloveshopping]

With the exception screening & dental appointments, I don't go near anyone medical. My parents were in their 60s when they died & I can't see me becoming Methuselah's granny, which probably explains why I'm as shallow as a puddle & believe in a short life & a merry one. If I have this vaccination it will be because I need it to travel or to get into somewhere or something, not to prevent getting covid because there are many illnesses that scare me far more than this virus. For what it's worth my Mr T has a friend (climbing) who is a doctor & he said RNA vaccines are safe & effective, he also believes that the virus will weaken & becomes one of the many that we face all the time.

Yes it is true that viruses like Covid-19 generally mutate. Many of the mutations fail so that the virus eventually is not so prevalent. Also the virus mutates and weakens. The problem atthe moment is that it is still a very real threat to groups of people and the NHS cannot cope with large quantities of sick people.

 

[iloveshopping]

I have always been fascinated by the 1918 flu even went to the library and got books out on it. There was a young doctor in Belfast who murdered his girlfriend and signed the death cert she had died from it. He got caught and hung for murder. So there you go obscure fact or what? There are numerous documentaries about it and there was an English scientist who did these and always said something big would come. They talked about SARS which he said we dodged a bullet as it stayed in and around China, the Bird Flu which came in 2010. Oh, they found a dead swan in N.I. which died of bird flu this month. Now people tend to forget about it. They used to give out daily numbers of who had died of it in the local news until they decided to stop.

A member here was a nurse and she said it was so scary they had to wear full hazmat suits even if patients did not have it. A woman around the corner eldest daughter who was 12 at the time and suffered from COPD. She took ill and rushed to the hospital, the 12-year-old had to go into a seal roomed laying on a mattress no bedding with nurses and doctors wearing full hazmat until she was found not to have the bird flu. Her mother and father standing outside the room unable to do anything. People seem to blank out that one and we are only talking 10 years ago.

People seem to forget that at least 50 million people died from 1918 flu and that was a time no flying around the world on holiday. Villages up in the artic were wiped out by it. They now believe it started in the US a training camp close to a pig farm and they butchered their own meat in the camp from the pig farm. This was 1917 and young healthy soldiers started dying their lungs drowning in their own mucus. Then, of course, they all got on ships heading for Europe and WWI. This is the one they all fear and have some samples in a few laboratories. This strain H1N5 is still in the bodies of people who died from it and buried. All they can do is vaccinate every year for hopefully the lesser strains that come.

For Covid just look around the world now how many catching with long term effects after the get over the virus. How many dying still all over the world even now. America now has the highest death rate and it is not a 3rd world country. I think I will be in the 6 or 7 levels to get the vaccine. The scientists have always said the world will not end in war but with a sneeze.

I heard that the Spanish flu, as it was called, originated in chicken farms in Northern France where they were breeding chickens to provide food for the troops.

 

[stratobuddy]

I had ‘real’ flu 25 years ago and I was so ill I thought I was dying. If COVID is potentially worse, I will definitely have the vaccine.

I also had "real flu" when I was a civilian working on a Royal Navy ship, they called me a "boffin" in naval slang.

The ship's surgeon confirmed I had flu and was treating me.

I was in my bunk when a whole ship exercise was announced, with fires, floods, explosions and casualties (with very realistically made-up injuries).

All the civilians had to muster in the ship's main corridor (with lifejackets on), when all I wanted to do was lay in my bunk.

There were constant announcements on the Tannoy about the progress of the disaster.

Although I knew it was only an exercise, I genuinely felt that I couldn't care less whether the ship sank or not, as I felt so bad.

That was the only time I had flu that bad.

 

[Brissles]

Me too, - I had the real flu about 40 years ago. Barely was able to get out of bed to get to the bathroom. There was no 'cold' symptoms, but body aching, sore throat and felt so ill I slept most of the time. Not long married my new husband was a bit rubbish at the caring bit, so for three days straight he bought us takeaways for dinner - his mostly, day 1 was fish and chips, day 2 was Indian, day 3 was Chinese. Took almost 10 days to get over it, and I was so much younger then !

It may be the case that the number of 'take ups' for the vaccine outweigh those that refuse to take it, which will make the pool of those getting Covid smaller, and a smaller herd immunity. It wont see the end of the virus because of those who are asymptomatic, but there will be far fewer put at risk.

 

[donna255]

I heard that the Spanish flu, as it was called, originated in chicken farms in Northern France where they were breeding chickens to provide food for the troops.

That was a theory but then after the war, it was reported about the deaths in the US training camp. Flu always starts with wild birds which then moves to chickens, ducks etc and then moves to pigs. Pigs strangely are the closest to humans and it is an easy jump from pigs to humans. If you notice model farming pigs are kept in large piggeries all very hygienic. I did market research about two years about and it was about food production they had people from the farmers union there explaining and answering questions. The piggery was a 3 stories building and I was asking about why are pigs not just kept outside as they used to be? They started explaining about keeping pigs healthy and I clicked hello they mean not transferring viruses to humans and picking up from birds.

The reason it got the name Spanish Flu was that Spain was not in the First World War and still had free press all other countries involved kept a very tight rein on what could be published as it could affect the war effort. So the reports in 1917 from doctors trying to treat the young men in the training camp were kept quiet Modern scientists within the past few years have gone back over the data and where it started and now the records of an unknown virus well then didn't know about viruses then and killing so many was the beginning of Spanish Flu. They even when and took samples from what they could from the remains of the soldiers camp.

 

[Lemonpop]

I used to work in the Payroll dept of a mail order company and the number of people who had 2 days off sick with "flu" used to make me and my manager laugh.

I was in my mid 30's when I had flu and I couldn't get out of bed for 5 days. Mum came over on the 6th day and so I decided to have a bath. Mum had to help me back to bed were I was for a further 2 days. It took me a couple of weeks to feel 100%.

I have asthma and had pneumonia 4 times so we haven't mixed with family or friends or been anywhere since the beginning of March.

We definitely will be getting the vaccine as soon as we can.