Labour madness would rather see people die than give them a free flu jab - Carole Malone

What the Hell’s the point of vaccines that take years and billions of pounds to develop if we’re just going to give them to a tiny percentage of the population?

Currently only people over the Over 65’s get it free and even though there are some exceptions to that rule - there aren’t many. But why just give it to the over 65’s for God sake? Many people in their 50’s and 60’s would hugely benefit from a free vaccine because it means if they got flu they wouldn’t get it so badly that they’d need to clog up hospital beds.

This year’s panic is already well under way. Nurses say they’ve never been more worried about patient safety because the numbers with flu in hospitals has soared five-fold in a month. Patients are also being stacked up in corridors which have become unsanitary and patients are taking more than two days to be seen. Even gyms are being turned into makeshift wards.

Prof Julian Redhead, the NHS national clinical director for urgent and emergency care, has warned that hospital wards everywhere are now “ full to bursting and that pressure is feeding back into A and E Depts” . And what’s the betting most of those people haven’t had the flu vaccine?

Last year there were nearly 15,000 excess deaths associated with the flu - most of which could probably have been avoided if more people had been given free flu jabs.

The number of flu cases in hospitals this year has already hit a record breaking 5,111 which is triple the number it was at the same time last year.

Multiple hospitals are also declaring critical incidents and A and E Departments are being overrun with people who can’t breathe.

And all of this comes hot on the heels of the busiest year on record for ambulance teams with reports that ambulances are queued up 18-deep outside hospitals.

So why the hell has this dopey government and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation decided not to give free flu vaccinations to people aged between 50- 64 – the very people who are likely to be get complications – or even die – because of the flu.

It makes absolutely no sense. Doctors are already saying the strain on hospitals this year is almost as bad as during the pandemic. And Yes, back then people were dying in their thousands but mostly because we didn’t have a covid vaccine. But we DO have a flu vaccine so why aren’t we giving it to those 10m people aged between 50 and 64 who even if they don’t die are very definitely those currently taking up hospital beds.

Because we have fantastic flu vaccines no-one in their 50’s, 60’s or 70’s should ever be so ill with it that they die or need to be hospitalised. But that’s what’s happening.

So just who are these bean counters who think a good way to save a few bob is to deny a potentially life-saving vaccination to people who WILL take up valuable hospital beds without it? Well, it’s the idiots on the joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation who decided that it wouldn’t be cost effective to vaccinate people aged between 50-64 which has turned out to be a stupid, ill thought out not to mention costly decision both in terms of money and lives.

What the hell’s the point of vaccinations if we’re going to ration them? We didn’t ration covid jabs or charge for them so why are we doing it with flu jabs?

It’s hard not to rage when you hear that seriously ill people with cancers, heart disease and other life threatening conditions can’t get treatment or a hospital bed because beds are blocked by people with flu.

This dozy committee also decided to start the vaccination rollout a month later than usual ( more ill-thought out cost cutting) which meant when the flu season started in early December and thousands of people were left exposed.

You really couldn’t make up this kind of incompetence.

We have a flu vaccine that prevents people from dying or becoming seriously ill yet we’re not using it on huge swathes of the population because of the cost.

So what’s the human cost of not using it? What’s the cost to those with serious health conditions who die because they can’t get a hospital bed? What’s the cost to doctors and nurses who can’t cope with hospitals teeming with people who really shouldn’t be there.

An NHS spokesman struggling to excuse the JCVI’s recklessness said: “The committee decides when and where the vaccines will offer the best protection.”

Well its clear its cocked up that little objective. What’s also clear is that the JCVI’s decision was based solely on cost and has backfired – spectacularly. Because whatever they’ve saved on this year’s limited vaccine rollout the cost to hospitals and more importantly to human life is incalculable.

Our NHS is getting £187B this year and the very least the British people can expect is a free flu jab. It’s not a lot to ask from a health service that was once the envy of the world but which can now barely keep up with third world hospitals.

Maybe it’s because these days the NHS is peopled by vastly overpaid “suits”, bean counters and people who don’t give a stuff about sick people – only the bottom line. And of course their own pay and pensions.

We used to have a health service that respected and cared about the people it serves.

Now, we have one that would rather see patients die than be given a free flu jab!