Originally I was advised that 25 September was the date, no appointments, we just have too queue all around the Health Centre, School and local roads, thus also deadlocking the main village road and small shopping centre as it’s a Saturday. Yet all on that day are over 65s and probably at home all week, annoyingly this happens every year.
There was then notification of non-delivery of vaccine so that day was cancelled. Now though it’s tomorrow with time slots defined by month of birth. No doubt still queues all round the Health Centre though. I’ve gave up with all that as to queue in cold weather is not good for my health. This year,
as the previous two, I have made an appointment at the local pharmacy, no queues but have to wait until 21 October, that for me though is the lesser of the problems.
I received a text this morning inviting me to make an appointment at the surgery for both the flu and the booster jabs. I followed the link straight away only to discover there were no appointments left. I shall make an appointment at the vaccine centre for the booster but won’t have the flu jab - I’ve never had one yet so this year will be no different.
I don’t agree with giving both jabs together, even though they are saying it is safe.
It think it is overloading our immune system all in one go, and for me personally, I fear it more likely to batter it than strengthen it at our age.
I felt so cross watching the lunchtime news today, when they were predicting all the Flu deaths this year. How can they possibly say who will live or die at this stage?
Last winter we suddenly didn’t hear of one single flu death, which is more than a bit weird don’t you think? Yet this year they say there will be many thousands!
There is more to this than we are being told, IMO.
Deaths in the home increased by a third of what would normally be expected.
The government have been very creative over the pandemic in how deaths not just from Covid but all deaths have been reported.
My daughter who works at the Doctors Surgery got both jabs together last Friday. One in each arm. She was flat out all Weekend, could hardly get her head up off the pillow. Only went back to work on Tuesday.
My Gp’s web page had stated that they would be calling people in for their flu jab so I left it, to wait and see. Last week when I had to speak to someone about my medication order/up for review, I asked about it and was told, no, they are not calling us in! So I have booked, but it’s not until early next month.
Are there more deaths from flu than from covid? Data from the Office for National Statistics show that in England and Wales the number of deaths from influenza was 1598 in 2018 and 1223 in 2019.1 This is way below the annual deaths from covid-19, which at the current rate of around 800 deaths a week in England and Wales equates to more than 40 000 a year.2
Disagreements have emerged on social media because some commentators have quoted much higher figures for annual deaths from flu.3 The reason for the discrepancy, as highlighted by the health systems researcher Dan Goyal,4 is that flu and pneumonia deaths are often reported together, including by the ONS itself. When pneumonia deaths are included with flu, the number would be 29 516 in 2018 and 26 398 in 2019. This is obviously closer to covid death numbers, though still less, according to current trends.
Are there more deaths from flu than from covid?
Data from the Office for National Statistics show that in England and Wales the number of deaths from influenza was 1598 in 2018 and 1223 in 2019.1 This is way below the annual deaths from covid-19, which at the current rate of around 800 deaths a week in England and Wales equates to more than 40 000 a year.2
Disagreements have emerged on social media because some commentators have quoted much higher figures for annual deaths from flu.3 The reason for the discrepancy, as highlighted by the health systems researcher Dan Goyal,4 is that flu and pneumonia deaths are often reported together, including by the ONS itself. When pneumonia deaths are included with flu, the number would be 29 516 in 2018 and 26 398 in 2019. This is obviously closer to covid death numbers, though still less, according to current trends.
Covid mortality data have also been the subject of debate. Through the pandemic some datasets, including Public Health England’s, have included all deaths from any cause within 28 days of a positive covid test. Some sceptics have argued that this approach has overestimated the number of people dying from covid-19. But as The BMJ’s columnist David Oliver and the expert statistician David Spiegelhalter have pointed out,56 this approach has probably under-recognised the real number of deaths from covid-19, because of an initial absence of testing back in spring 2020, and because people who survived more than 28 days before dying from covid will not have been included. The ONS’s data, considered the most accurate, are based on cases where covid 19 is mentioned on death certificates. As Spiegelhalter has highlighted, 90% of death certificates where covid-19 is recorded identify it as the primary, underlying cause of death.
Had my flu jab a few days ago…apart from a slightly sore arm no side effects …he asked me if I had had my shingles jab…I didn’t know there was such a thing so he checked and yes I’ve had it…terrible that I did t know I’d even had it.
The problem with the C-19 statistics are the false impression they give. The figures are always given are for those that died with a confirmed C-19 infection which is in no way related to a C-19 death unless the death certificate specifically statescause of death was C-19
The source I posted (BMJ) indicated Covid deaths were likely underreported in the first wave because they didn’t have adequate testing facilities for months. I remember they did a big exercise to clean up the covid death stats based on how the deaths were classified back in June/Jul last year and the numbers fell by about ten or fifteen thousand.
