The flu jab lottery that gives me the shivers
BIT of a nip in the air this week. And the nights, as they say, are fair drawing in. So it’s natural that, for many of us, thoughts have turned to getting the flu jab.
Particularly given that, the other week, interim deputy chief medical officer Nicola Steedman stood up at the daily Covid briefing and told us all that ‘getting f l u and Covid together is likely to be extremely serious’, and urged all Scots who can to make use of free flu vaccinations. If only it were that simple. Across t he c ountry people complain of spending days calling and emailing health boards to sign up for their free vaccine. Long queues have formed outside clinics. Some have been told it will be November before they will be seen.
Meanwhile, over in Fife, the health board has asked people to stop calling their flu jab hotline because they do not have enough staff to cover it, finally admitting that they had ‘not prepared adequately’. You think?
And that’s not the end of it. On Thursday, a bombshell from Nicola Sturgeon. The flu jab may not be provided to everyone who is eligible. The Scottish Government has apparently secured supplies for 2.44million people – an increase of 800,000 on previous years – yet the First Minister was unable to tell us how many are eligible in the first place.
‘If that is exceeded, we will prioritise vaccine supply for the most vulnerable.’ How reassuring.
Anecdotally, I know of at least one eligible person whose GP surgery has told them they still ‘don’t know’ what they’ll be doing about their flu vaccination programme this year, while another already has a date for their jab in the diary.
A picture of a postcode lottery appears to be slowly, and worryingly, emerging, of a Scotland where when, how and if you will receive your flu jab depends on where you live, and just how ‘ vulnerable’ the Government deems you to be.
It also speaks of a Government that has not adequately prepared. Did they really think they could blithely issue dire warnings about the dangers without expecting us to react?
People are already terrified. Putting the wind up them about something it turns out they can do nothing about will only make them more fearful. It is, quite simply, not good enough. And there’s another problem, too.
I am lucky to be both well enough and young enough that I am not required to have a flu jab on the NHS. For several years, however, during a period of ill health I did receive it, and ever since I have endeavoured to seek it out privately.
I’d rather be safe than sorry, and after the stark warnings about the dangers of contracting both flu and Covid, it seems like a no-brainer.
Usually I go to Boots, which has offered a reasonably priced service for several years now. No such luck in 2020. A visit to their website last week informed me their flu vaccine service has been ‘suspended’. I duly entered my email address and was told I had been placed on a waiting list. Given that pharmacies across the country have reported a huge surge of people contacting them, trying to book an injection, I suspect I shall be waiting a very long time.
THIS too, is worrying. If the i mplications of f l u and Covid are so serious that they merit a stark warning from the Government, where does this leave those of us who don’t receive the jab on the NHS, and are unable to source it anywhere else?
The dismal answer is anxious, unprotected, and even less likely to leave the house than ever before.
The current flu vaccine fiasco should also serve as warning for the future. All too often we hear talk that the Covid-19 vaccine, when it eventually arrives, will be the silver bullet, the answer to all our prayers. The key to returning to something like normality after so much pain and disruption to our daily lives.
But if this Government can’t even properly organise the flu jab, a tried and tested treatment that rolls out every year, how will they cope with the Covid-19 vaccine?
I dread to think.