I was disappointed to learn that I will not be entitled to the Covid vaccine this year. I had become quite used to it on an annual basis, accompanying my flu jab. While I might not understand the exact science that goes into the vaccine process, or indeed how vaccines work, I do listen to experts. If the overwhelming body of scientific and medical evidence shows that vaccines work and are safe, that’s good enough for me. Now those same experts – in this case the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) – say that the current version of Covid is very mild for most people and we don’t all need it. I hope and believe their confidence will be justified.
To the best of my knowledge, I’ve had influenza, or the flu as most of us call it, at least once in its most virulent form. I felt terrible for the best part of a week, completely washed-up, barely able to leave my bed apart from urgent bathroom visits. There were times I’d have accepted a fatal injection because I felt so ill. Thanks to the jab – touches wood – I don’t get the flu anymore and indeed laugh at people who say they have got the flu but carry on pretty well as normal. You haven’t got it, idiots. You’d know if you did.
Like many of you, I have had Covid a few times since the world almost stopped turning during the 2020 worldwide epidemic. The Covid I had in 2023, caught I believe on a transatlantic flight, was supposedly mild, a bit like a heavy cold combined with exhaustion with added brain fog. But it lingered into what a GP described as the ‘100 day cough’, which necessitated my having all manner of scans to see if there was anything else wrong with my lungs. It turned out there was nothing immediately life-threatening but there was some scarring of the lungs and my asthma got and has stayed permanently worse. And that was despite having the Covid jab on every possible occasion. I wondered just how bad I’d have been had I not had the jab?
Apparently, some doctor’s surgeries and pharmacists have been the subject of abuse from angry patients who didn’t bother to read the communications they received from the NHS ahead of this year’s flu/Covid season and turned up expecting the Covid jab. I was surprised when I received my messages that I would not be entitled to one this year, but it never occurred to me to have a pop at local staff who have no say in the matter. Give the JCVI a bell is what I would say.
So, on Monday I can pop along to the local pharmacy, do my usual joke (“Just a little prick!” “Well, it’s very cold at the moment”, that kind of thing) and approach the bleak midwinter knowing that the flu will be one less thing to worry about. And as I hurtle to life’s exit door at what seems a more rapid rate every year, I’ll take a winter without flu any day of the week.
