Opinion: This flu is savage - get your jab now

Putting off your flu shot this year? Don’t. Take it from me - I’ve just had the flu and it completely floored me, writes Kylie Lang.

My goal this week has been to stay out of hospital.

It’s the same goal I had last week, not to seem unimaginative.

But can you blame me? Who wants to be carted off in an ambulance only to be laid flat in said ambulance for hours while waiting to be seen in the laughably named “admissions” area of any given Queensland hospital to then be told, another handful of countable hours later, ‘we have no bed for you, please go home’.

No thanks.

This flu, however, is not so easily dismissed.

Anyone who shrugs off the severity of the 2022 flu season is welcome to spend a few hours with me.

A dose of Influenza A is something they won’t forget in a hurry.

I was only days away from getting my vaccine when the virus struck. Timing is everything, until it stinks.

Lying in bed with chronic joint pain, a raging headache and a roaring cough made me think: is this what it feels like to be dying?

I’m not trying to be dramatic. This thing floored me.

More and more flu-hit Queenslanders are ending up on the ICU.

I’ve had the flu before but this was different: savage, relentless and debilitating.

Week one I was bedridden for four days; week two I’ve managed to move around the house but the exhaustion is overwhelming, the cough lingering.

And here I was feeling relieved that I’d so far dodged Covid.

Many health professionals are saying the flu is worse, as are the poor buggers who’ve had the misfortune to be afflicted with both.

Right now, there are more people in intensive care units with the flu than with Covid. No small statistic that should be swept under the carpet of political convenience.

Dr Bruce Willett, Queensland chair of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, says this year’s flu has “rapid onset”.

“The flu can hit the unvaccinated very hard,” Dr Willett says.

“One minute you are fine and the next you feel like you’ve been hit by a bus and for many, it is lasting longer than in previous years.

“Many have become victims of the success of the coronavirus vaccine ... they caught the virus but weren’t that sick so they somehow think the flu is a less serious virus and will be a walk in the park.”

Believe me, it is not.

The State Government, with its diligent deference to health advice these past two years, is offering free flu jabs for everyone over six months of age, until June 30.

What else can it do?

It’s not as if lockdowns and mask mandates could be back on the table. People wouldn’t cop that for a second, and the Palaszczuk Government knows it doesn’t need any more help to be on the nose with voters as it continues to dodge integrity issues, emergency ward chaos and a hospital ramping crisis, among other things.

Urging people to get the flu vaccination is the smartest move the Premier can make under the circumstances.

It is also the best way to give our bruised economy half a chance of bouncing back after the enforced pressures of the pandemic.

Our nation’s collective immune system has been weakened by Covid restrictions. With borders slammed shut for so long, we were not exposed to the flu to any great degree.

Now, we are sitting ducks, or schmucks if we don’t roll up our sleeves at the first opportunity.

Be quick.

Pharmacy Guild of Australia Brisbane branch pharmacist Fiona Watson is among those warning of flu vaccine shortages.

The 2022 flu season arrived early, and with free jabs on offer this month, uptake is high.

Ms Watson says the vaccine takes about two weeks to kick in fully, and supplies won’t last.

Take it from me, this is one vaccination you don’t want to miss.

My goal for next week: to feel human again.

Kylie Lang is associate editor of The Courier-Mail

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