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Got a flu shot today

CAJohn

Active Member
Time of past OR future Camino
Frances Sept/Oct 2019
I decided to get a flu shot today. I usually get them at work, but they won’t be available at work until the end of September and I will be leaving before that. We are actually required to be immunized or wear masks throughout the Flu season at work.

I will be on the Camino until at least November 1 and then in relatively crowded conditions for the next two weeks after that in Europe. So, it isn’t uncommon for influenza to start in October and November.And I have noticed that for the last several years, Europe seems to be hit earlier than the United States with the flu season.

So, I’m just throwing it out there for people to think about as part of their Camino preparations heading into the fall and winter.
 
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Yes please, do, if not for your own sake for the sake of others with whom you will be sharing space. And if you do become ill, if you can possibly afford it, take yourself to some private accommodation. Not only will you be more comfortable, but your fellow pilgrims will be grateful.
 
Yes please, do, if not for your own sake for the sake of others with whom you will be sharing space. And if you do become ill, if you can possibly afford it, take yourself to some private accommodation. Not only will you be more comfortable, but your fellow pilgrims will be grateful.
Right on, Kanga!
 
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Always advise everyone to get any and all vaccines available. Then again, I am a big believer in preventative medicine, similar to how I treat my car.

The inconvenience of the vaccination is far outweighed by the greater cost and hassle of getting sick. This is especially significant if it ruins your or another’s Camino.

I have recent vaccinations or boosters for:

Influenza
Tetanus & Diptheria (combo shot)
Pneumonia
Shingles
Measles, Mumps & Rubella (MMR)
Polio (my late father had it as a child, and I learned)

My view is you can choose to prevent illness, or risk ruining your plans, and those of others.

Hope this helps.
 
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Sorry, I’ve never had the influenza vaccine, but I promise to stay away from fellow pilgrims if ever I become infected. I did have a tetanus booster yesterday, however, after being savaged by a couple of sheepdogs in my home village. Ah well, it should protect me from all those much maligned and apparently toothless Spanish dogs for another ten caminos.
 
I decided to get a flu shot today. I usually get them at work, but they won’t be available at work until the end of September and I will be leaving before that. We are actually required to be immunized or wear masks throughout the Flu season at work.

I will be on the Camino until at least November 1 and then in relatively crowded conditions for the next two weeks after that in Europe. So, it isn’t uncommon for influenza to start in October and November.And I have noticed that for the last several years, Europe seems to be hit earlier than the United States with the flu season.

So, I’m just throwing it out there for people to think about as part of their Camino preparations heading into the fall and winter.

This post from Sept. 2019 just showed up in my feed and thought it was interesting to read now.
 
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I decided to get a flu shot today. I usually get them at work, but they won’t be available at work until the end of September and I will be leaving before that. We are actually required to be immunized or wear masks throughout the Flu season at work.

I will be on the Camino until at least November 1 and then in relatively crowded conditions for the next two weeks after that in Europe. So, it isn’t uncommon for influenza to start in October and November.And I have noticed that for the last several years, Europe seems to be hit earlier than the United States with the flu season.

So, I’m just throwing it out there for people to think about as part of their Camino preparations heading into the fall and winter.
Great advice, especially this year.
 
It is also my intention to take the flu jab this year, for the first time ever. I now know why it is made available, and think I have just been lucky to date.
 
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It is also my intention to take the flu jab this year, for the first time ever. I now know why it is made available, and think I have just been lucky to date.
You have been lucky, and those in your community who get their annual flu shots have helped to protect you from it because se of local herd immunity
 
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Get my flu shot early October ,

The flu shot in the Netherlands is for people 60 and older and adults and children with certain medical conditions
 
Normally here it is everyone older then 65 , health care workers and everyone with specific ( chronic ) ailments.
Now with Covid everyone older then 50 will be included here in Belgium.
As a healthcare worker I will get mine ( for free ) at work.

 
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
Wow. In the US everyone is eligible for a flu shot. Sadly, many - including healthcare workers don't get it.
I know. It's a no brainer to do it, especially as they are often available for free. I have known a couple of people who got flu symptoms after having the shot last year. I suppose those reports would would possibly scare some folks off.
 
I get one every year now at my doctor's suggestion - having had an unforgettable bout of flu in 2001, I realize it's nothing to mess with.
"It's just the flu" is not in many cases just.
Same with covid-19.
 
I know. It's a no brainer to do it, especially as they are often available for free. I have known a couple of people who got flu symptoms after having the shot last year. I suppose those reports would would possibly scare some folks off.


I always react rather heavily from the flu jab so I will ask to get it on Friday to chill out in the weekend. Always have a fever ( highter temps ) two days afterwards.
 
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Influenza means a week of misery. Hacking cough, fevers, weakness. I could barely get from my bed to the fridge and back. Very much worth getting the vaccine. Here in Australia with all the social distancing and handwashing the flu rate is very very low. Basically if you have flu symptoms you MUST get tested for Covid19 as there is so little influenza about.
 
I remember having had the flu and feeling like I had been run over by a truck!
I started getting flu shots decades ago when I was getting allergy shots, and they asked if I'd like a flu shot too. I don't think that I've missed a year since.
 
Mine is due on 18th October. The medical clinic I attend has set up a double arched frame work in their car park covered in blue tarps. You have to provide your car registration number, wear a mask and have your sleeve rolled up ready for a jab given through the car window.

They've actually called it a "Drive Flu" (I blame the Americans)

When I phoned to make the appointment the conversation went:

Me: "Can I order a burger?"
Receptionist (audibly sighing): "Heard it already!"
"Fries?"
"Heard that one too and, before you ask, no, there won't be any shakes either . . . "

I'd hate to have to answer the phone to me. ;)
 
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
I get a flu shot every year, free to me as an Alberta senior. This year it will not be available until the middle of October. Last year, I was on camino when the flu shot became available, so I had to wait until I got back. I had a nasty reaction to the shot for the first time. I believe that the shots are stronger for seniors, apparently because we need a higher dosage for protection. I am hoping that the combination of hospital beds filled with seniors with flu and hospital beds filled with younger people with COVID-19 will still leave me a bed for my knee replacement surgery, due in late November: 1 to 2 days is the period in a hospital bed after that procedure.
 
Mine is due on 18th October. The medical clinic I attend has set up a double arched frame work in their car park covered in blue tarps. You have to provide your car registration number, wear a mask and have your sleeve rolled up ready for a jab given through the car window.

They've actually called it a "Drive Flu" (I blame the Americans)

When I phoned to make the appointment the conversation went:

Me: "Can I order a burger?"
Receptionist (audibly sighing): "Heard it already!"
"Fries?"
"Heard that one too and, before you ask, no, there won't be any shakes either . . . "

I'd hate to have to answer the phone to me. ;)


Out of sincere interest : NHS still not operating on a " normal " level and seeing patients indoors?
 
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Out of sincere interest : NHS still not operating on a " normal " level and seeing patients indoors?
Oh yes, if you can't use the drive flu then you can attend surgery. They asked me if I would be coming by car and if I was OK with the system. Last year they had a series of "pop up" clinics and I attended on at the local rugby club - it was walk in, give name, take jab, walk out. Very efficient but then the NHS in my area usually is.
 
In recent years in the US it has become common to get your flu shot at a pharmacy. Those with health insurance pay nothing for the shot.
Me - last week - at a pharmacy as soon as they got their allotment - paid for by Medicare Advantage plan. Just the usual bit of pain at injection site for 2 days.
Always at this time since I go to Spain to walk in the Fall. It's a habit now...
Take care, all ~
 
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Our Atmospheric H30 poncho offers lightness and waterproofness. Easily compressible and made with our Waterproof fabric, its heat-sealed interior seams guarantee its waterproofness. Includes carrying bag.

€60,-
Wow. In the US everyone is eligible for a flu shot
I think you misunderstood the comment.

In European countries - in this case it was a comment about the situation in the Netherlands - everyone is eligible for a flu shot afaik. The difference is that the usual main target groups are eligible for a free or subsidised flu shot while others may have to pay the full price. I learnt that, again in the Netherlands, about 6 million persons will receive a letter to invite them to come for their annual flu shot in October and November.

These flu shot campaigns are organised differently in the various European countries but to my knowledge there is no restriction on who is eligible or not for flu shots. There is some concern this year that there may be more demand than in earlier years but this has to be seen when autumn and winter are here. To my knowledge, in earlier years, more people ought to have had a flu shot and could have had a flu shot than people who actually went to get one.
 
I work in a hospital pharmacy and buy the medicines there - so I am right at the source🥳

For the coming season we have received significantly more vaccine than in previous years. So far, it has almost always been the case that many doctors and nurses have not been vaccinated (we are health professionals and invulnerable) 😡, only the administration has appeared in full. This year, the management is "urgently" asking that at least all employees who come into direct contact with the patient be vaccinated.

Every employee can get a flu vaccination directly at work - the costs are borne by the hospital.

In Germany, flu vaccinations have been recommended in the last few years to everyone over 60 and/or with cronical diseases. This year, they "promote" it much more in the hope, that younger people also get vaccinated. Because almost 100% of the population in Germany has health insurance and you don't have to pay anything to the doctor or for the vaccination itself, I think that this year the number of flu vaccinations will be significantly higher than in previous years. Let´s hope I´m right.

Four weeks ago my niece, a young, very sporty girl, had, what we call, summer flu.

She described it that way: I felt that one tank was standing on my head and one on my chest. She had a fever of almost 40°C and coughed as if she had worked as a miner for 50 years. Terrible.

She was very careful throughout the Covid period and still is, so she didn´t expect to get something like this.
Of course there was alarm in the whole family because we were afraid that she had Covid19. Fortunately it wasn't.

Now she calls her doctor nearly every day to find out when she can be vaccinated against influenza.

It was like a shot across the bow for all of us.
 
Years ago in Japan, they immunized school age children against the flu. I think this was to decrease school absenteeism and parents having to take time off of work. What they found was a big drop in flu deaths among the elderly. Japanese grandparents usually take care of the school aged children after school for the parents. That was when recommendations for more widespread flu immunizations beyond high risk groups started.
 
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
Got my Flu shot at my local California pharmacy 2 weeks ago today. The one year I skipped the shot I got the flu, so never again!
The pharmacy tech told me that they were much busier giving shots than in previous years. I was still in and out in 10 minutes and insurance paid for it.
 
This year our surgery had a jab day. In one door hands sterilised, masks to be worn the doctors and nurses were lined across the waiting room, you were told which queue to join, jabbed and out by a different door, they must have been doing hundreds by the hour. Totally distanced and so quick. The NHS at its contining best.

I know of two people who did not take advantage of flu jabs who actually got the flu and discovered that it wasn't just a very bad cold. One now has two artificial heart valves as a result, the virus affected his heart. The other lost his place in the Olympic training team for rowing and is on permanent heart medication.
Flu can be truly dangerous and it can affect those who are extremely fit just as quickly as those who aren't.
The NHS is a great institution, paid for by everyone through their taxes and National Insurance contributions.
 
I get a flu shot every year, free to me as an Alberta senior. This year it will not be available until the middle of October. Last year, I was on camino when the flu shot became available, so I had to wait until I got back. I had a nasty reaction to the shot for the first time. I believe that the shots are stronger for seniors, apparently because we need a higher dosage for protection. I am hoping that the combination of hospital beds filled with seniors with flu and hospital beds filled with younger people with COVID-19 will still leave me a bed for my knee replacement surgery, due in late November: 1 to 2 days is the period in a hospital bed after that procedure.
I will be following along for your knee replacement journey, pre and post. I’ve just got my referral to an Ortho so I suppose this is the beginning of my own journey. I’ve had so much deterioration in my knee over the last two years that I cannot walk another Camino until I get new hardware. More than a little depressing... good luck with November!
 
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