If you are a parent, will you be giving your kid the swine flu jab?

Dans

I tend towards the side that believes it's all been overhyped. Then you find out that the creche where you send your kid has two suspected cases and of course the doubts begin to set in. To compound that doubt, the BBC reports that the Govt will offer the jab to all under 5s. I am no medic but felt the whole thing was overblown and only really likely to be a threat to those with underlying illnesses, like most flus. But those nagging doubts are creeping in and now I have a dilemma - to vaccinate or not?

Ramshock

not personally no, surely the nurse would do that

jdmufc

i got my jab a few weeks ago and have to go back next week for another, it dont half make your arm hurt.

back on track though, its just like the MMR jab, do ya, dont ya?

only time will tell and its the parents that have to live with the consequences

R_Nick

I am no medical expert and thus in cases like this I usually listen to those who are.

I'm not a parent but if I were I'd be getting the vaccination given to my kids.

Pogue Mahone

I'm torn too, as it happens.

The vaccine was developed in an enormous hurry and I'm not convinced it went through the same rigorous testing as other vaccines.

Then again, Swine Flu is a nasty illness.

My only kid is 8 months old and I'll probably say no, because he's so young. If he was older I might consider it.

Ramshock

ditto pogues, my boy was born on March 11th, yours?

1871_Biscuit

I have mine booked for Saturday.

iSparky

my GP is advising people not to get the swine flu jab as he claims not enough research has been done on it

1871_Biscuit

Is there a chance im going to die from the inoculation on Saturday?

iSparky

yes, RIP

Pogue Mahone

March 4th. So he could have your lad in a fight. Probably.

Congratulations, by the way. It's cool being a dad, isn't it?

WeasteDevil

No, they are both perfectly healthy, and it wouldn't surprise me if they'd already had the swine flu and got over it.

AlwynP

Would never happen, they'd be in different weight classes.

Pogue Mahone

Meh. If I wrap him in bin-bags and stick him on a crawl-mill he could cut fairly quickly.

moses

I'm on a no at the moment, I'm with what Pogue says really (just the stuff in this thread mind, he knows fuck all about most other things)

Mockney

My mum has emailed me to tell me not to get it done....not that I was going to anyway, citing this article as her reason..So there's my parents opinion

What International Health Expert Thinks of the Flu Vaccine

Now I don't believe it will kill more people than it saves, that a clearly outlandish theory, but I've always viewed Swine Flu as yet another bollocks pandemic like SARS and Bird Flu before it designed to scare us into consumerism and make some of those lovely drug companies some more money. Anyone with half a brain could of told you it wasn't half as dangerous as they played it up to be....so, pah, bollocks to it

solvista

I think its unnecessary. There are plenty of ways your child can catch swine flu without you needin to inject them with it.

Make them play with any kid you see sneezing. That should do it.

Pogue Mahone

Scare us into consumerism? How does that work, exactly?

All the most high-profile disease awareness campaigns (aka the "scare-mongering") are government funded and guess who's footing the bill for all the Tamiflu and vaccines? You guessed it, the government.

Personally, I do think the government is making more of this than strictly absolutely necessary. With my conspiracy theory hat on I would say this is in an attempt to portray themselves as a caring, parental presence in our lives - as opposed to incompetent, corrupt fuck-wits who allowed the banks to squander billions, then spent the rest on duck ponds.

Whatever, swine flu is a very real epidemic and it is killing people. It may well be over-hyped but you're miles wide of the mark when you describe it as some aort of sneaky economic stimulus.

Ramshock

what odds you giving?

it is, he is starting to teeth now the poor wee git, so sleep is at a premium

711

Have you been vaccinated yourself though, Pogue?

If not I'll gladly have yours, there's four of us and I'll pay postage. And a bottle of Jamiesons. Each.

Mockney

You're scared, you hoard, you buy the papers and the medicines you think you need....My nan bought gallons of bottled water aftr 7/7 cos she thought "the arabs" would poison the water supply...she was a loon though granted.

you're less bothered by finding out the facts and just panic yourself into believing what the government tells you and whatever quick fix you think you need...Quick buy the newspaper and watch the news!! We must find out if we're all going to die tomorrow!! Fear and Consumption. It's the way Newspapers, TV shows etc etc all work

And the people making and developing the vaccine are working for free are they?...and how does the government get it's money again? We don't need this IMO, yet hundreds of people are being paid, with our money, to make it, and we're being encouraged to buy it by the government, thus upping demand and ensuring more production and more profit

Of course it's a real disease, and it's killed about 500 people in Europe so far....but like bird flu and SARS before it, it hasn't wiped us out yet...hmmm odd that...There's always a new disease that'll kill us and then never does...I've just learned to be incredibly blase about it Pogue is all

Stanley Road

55,000 children in sweden vaccinated without a single problem

Dans

Bizarre - my boy is March 8th.

Dans

i.e. the tax payer

This is my problem with it, added to which apparently the WHO chief advisor on this recently joined from a big pharma company.

Don't Kill Bill

No but if he keeps playing his guitar that loud much longer,I will give him a right jab.

711

Couldn't you use the same argument to say all health workers, doctors, nurses, researchers, hospital builders and the rest are just trying to con the taxpayer into paying their unnecessary wages? What's the difference?

Nialler

I've three kids under five, youngest aged 5 months.

I'm worried about the youngest as she was born with pneumonia and spent the first week of her life in intensive care being pumped with anti-biotics, thankfully she is now fully recovered and normal for her age.

our eldest who will be four next week goes to pre-school which will probably be a breeding ground for this illness should any of his peers come to school with the virus. His younger brother will get it if he gets it.

yet I'm still very wary about getting them all vaccinated

pauldyson1uk

This is my very thoughts ,I have 2 young lads 4 and 2 and both have already had swine flu and both given Tamiflu, gave it to Billy 4 and to be honest he still had it for a week , I did not give it to Jake 2 and he was over it quicker with Calpol and Nurofen.
Iam not convinced everybody who has been given the Tamiflu really needs it and like wise with the vaccine , but like you say only time will tell.
But I dont think I will be letting Billy and Jack have it.

Dans

I was merely pointing out that it's tax payer money more than making a point, but ultimately it's an extra expenditure isn't it?

Pogue Mahone

A terrified populace, too afraid to venture out of their own homes, spend more money? Interesting theory. Total nonsense but interesting. We must have been absolutely shitting ourselves through the boom times in the nineties. Can't say I remember it that way but there you go.


As per my last post. This is costing the government an absolute fecking fortune. They have absolutely no interest in giving pharma any more money than they absolutely have to. It is hurting them badly to fork out so much wedge to deal with the epidemic as aggressively as they are. It might be about winning votes but it's not about making money, clearly.

Agree with this bit. I tend to take most of these pandemics with a pinch of salt. Mainly because there's been so many incidences of crying wolf. One day, one of them will be the big deal but chances are Swine Flus is just more of the same.

moses

I just know that if the Swedes and Pogue disagree I'm lost, I usually follow one or the other on most important social issues.

I do get Mockney's point to a degree, I met a bloke last week who supplies those hand washer things that everyone is installing .... cunt couldn;t stop smiling.

Eyepopper

I believe in letting kids immune systems build up through exposure to germs.



I've had mine out licking pigs all week.

moses

But you don't have any, no wonder your neighbours hate you.

Eyepopper

My neighbours? You wanna see how mad the Gardai are with me!

Wibble

I am going to for sure. Swine flu is no big deal until it is.

golden_blunder

one look at our local hospital and you will see the wards are full of kids, teenagers and older people. A lot of them with no existing conditions as a lot of sources would like you to believe

Closer to home, my 9 year old neice spent 2 weeks in ICU, and has now been moved into a specialist Renal unit because her kidneys are fucked, also 1 of her lungs collapsed.

No existing/prior conditions. Previously a healthy, vibrant girl. The swine flu knocked her defenses right down, then she got septicemia which almost killed her. She caught it at school, her parents didnt realise how sick she was until she broke into a very sudden fever.

Underestimate this 'flu' at your own peril.

Chorley1974

I read that as licking pigs out

Eyepopper

thats because theres something wrong with your mind

Chorley1974

probably

moses

Sweet. Baby. Jesus.

Kids licking pigs out?


and I thought there was no ground unbroken.

Well done Chorley, you're sicker than the internet.