Hi
@bulkbiker, Not as professional advice or opinion:
What my doctor says is that there is a problem with the timing of flu vaccinations.
The vaccine only becomes available when some cough and cold bugs have already started.
So if you have one of these lurgies, the doctor will not usually give you a flu jab, because your body is already fighting off one bug.
Apparently once our immune system is targeting one bug, there is a crucial time window of about 10 days to 2 weeks or so in which it cannot re-orientate its cannons as it were to take on the second invader, be that a vaccine or an another bug.
Now think of it the other way around: if I, being in good health, have a flu jab I know that it takes about a week to 10 days to 'take', that is for the protective antibodies to form.
But I may be vulnerable in that time to anything else out there.
They say that
shingles happens when our bodies are lower than usual in immunity and the chicken pox virus which causes shingles has been asleep in a particular part of our body ever since we had chickenpox. Unfortunately an infection or a vaccination can trigger off an attack, wake up the virus..
But also note there is a vaccine against chickenpox which has been re-purposed to use to prevent shingles.
Similarly a number of people may be unlucky enough to pick up a cold or other virus in that time period, and interpret this as saying the flu jab caused them directly to have the flu.
My doctor opines that
if the flu jab was available before the winter bugs were prevalent that there might be less of this viral or other infection following a vaccination.
The very reason for obtaining the flu vaccination is that if someone contracts the flu, the nature of the flu and its main attack being on the nose and breathing system, can then make us more susceptible to pneumonia appearing in that crucial window of time whilst our immune system is battling with the flu.
Add the the immune system problems that can trouble diabetics, and separately those with failing kidneys, plus those prone to respiratory problems, the elderly and pregnant women you have a rationale for offering it particularly to these groups.