Five reasons to get a flu shot this year

Welcome to flu season. Last year there was a particularly bad flu outbreak in the UK, with more excess deaths than in the five years before the pandemic (the pandemic years were very unusual and so were not included in the calculations).

Could it be the same this year? It’s hard to predict. But there’s something we can all do to minimize the risk of a serious outbreak: get a flu shot.

Here are the best reasons for this:

Flu sucks

You’ll only know how bad the flu can be once you’ve had it: headaches and fever, cough, vomiting and diarrhea, and extreme fatigue can often leave you in bed for days on end. It is worth making some efforts to reduce the risk of contracting the virus.

It must be said that the flu vaccine does not have as strong an effect as the 2020 and 2021 Covid vaccines. Its effectiveness is more modest, reducing the likelihood of developing symptoms by about 40 to 60 percent.

Flu can cause complications: Especially in people at risk – especially those under two years of age and over 65 years of age – getting the flu can lead to pneumonia, severe muscle inflammation and even neurological diseases such as meningitis. In pregnant women, influenza can increase the risk of birth complications and reduce the baby’s birth weight.

The vaccine has been shown to reduce the risk of all these bad outcomes. Not as much as the great “95 percent” you may be familiar with from Covid, but still in significant quantities. For example, one study found that vaccinated people were 82 percent less likely to end up in the intensive care unit with the flu; Vaccination during pregnancy also reduces the risk of low birth weight and preterm birth. And in children, the vaccine reduced the risk of life-threatening complications from the flu by 75 percent.

It’s also important to know that there is no one “flu vaccine” – like the Covid vaccine, it needs to be constantly updated as new variants of the flu virus emerge. Interestingly, scientists are currently working on a universal flu vaccine based on mRNA technology.

Flu vaccine has unexpected benefits

Here’s a surprising discovery from six randomized controlled trials: The flu shot reduces the risk of heart attack.

Some studies were conducted on people at increased risk of heart disease, others on people who had already had a heart attack. But not everyone was like that. And overall, it was found that patients who received the flu vaccine (as opposed to a placebo) were 34 percent less likely to have a heart attack within a year.

Why is this? As we saw above, the flu can lead to complications, including infections such as pneumonia, the effects of which can extend beyond the lungs and also affect the heart. The less likely you are to get the flu, the less likely you are to experience this series of events.

Protect your elderly relatives

You may be less concerned about your own health. What about the health of others? During the Covid pandemic we’ve heard a lot about how our behavior can protect other people – could the same thing happen with the flu?

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The idea is that if enough people are vaccinated, “herd immunity” will develop, protecting even those who are not vaccinated. Interestingly, a 2017 mathematical modeling study using influenza data from England and Wales found that influenza vaccination in children aged 2 to 16 years appeared to result in fewer cases among older people, suggesting that that otherwise the childhood flu might have been passed on to them.

However, a systematic review of randomized trials into whether the flu vaccine protects exposed people from contracting the virus found much more equivocal evidence.

As difficult as it may be to prove in a study, it makes sense that reducing the likelihood of getting the flu will reduce the likelihood of transmitting the virus. You should definitely buy one if you plan to spend a lot of time at home with older relatives this winter—and that’s probably true for almost everyone.

The NHS will have to fight

Here’s another very good reason to get a flu shot. Data analyst Paul Mainwood has written extensively about the impossibility of transferring patients from A&E when NHS wards are full.

This in turn means that patients cannot leave ambulances parked outside hospitals and cannot get to the nearest emergency room. Waiting times for ambulances will increase, just like last year, and many people who have suffered a heart attack, stroke or life-threatening accident will have to wait several hours for help. In many cases they will die.

So if more people are hospitalized with the flu, especially if there is a serious outbreak this winter, this terrible side effect could easily lead to longer time to care. Mainwood Council? “Get a flu shot.”

In conclusion: it’s either very cheap or free.

If you are over 65, pregnant or have a number of health problems, the NHS will offer you a free vaccine. Children aged two years and older are also offered vaccinations at primary school or at their family doctor. For all the reasons above, it is important to accept their offer if you have not already done so.

If you don’t belong to these groups, you can easily get the flu vaccine. Prices vary, but you can get a flu jab for under £20, and sometimes for significantly less. To pick it up, you can often just stop by a pharmacy, even one of the major retailers, but you can also reserve it in advance online if you want to be sure.

So there are few excuses, and many good reasons: everyone who is able to get a flu shot should get a flu shot this winter.