Reports show that flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and viruses such as norovirus – as well as continuing cases of Covid – are impacting seriously on hospital admissions as of the last week of 2024 and the start of 2025. Figures from NHS England have revealed there was an average of 4,469 flu patients in hospital in England every day in the last week of December 2024.
This figure is higher than in 2022-23, which had 14,500 excess deaths, following the restricted (and lower rates) of social mixing of the Covid period. Most people can recover well from these viral infections, but they are more dangerous for children, pregnant women, those with compromised immunity and the elderly.
Vaccinations, available for all these illnesses apart from norovirus, are however at a relatively low uptake; but while the national vaccination booking system has now closed, those eligible can still get protected by visiting a COVID-19 walk-in vaccination site or finding a pharmacy offering the flu vaccine for free, if eligible, or for a small fee. The Health Security Agency is urging those eligible, particularly health and social care workers, to have a free flu vaccine.
Some 33% of pregnant women, 37% of people in an at-risk group and 73% of over-65s have had the jab, according to the latest vaccination figures.
So we are left with a question: why do so many of those most at risk ignore advice to be vaccinated? Do they simply not understand the relative risks of immunisation versus illness? Are they secretly scared of injections? Have they been exposed to myths about the dangers of vaccination? Are they unaware of the way viral infections are ‘clogging up’ the health service? Or is there a feeling simply that people have had enough of immunisations, after Covid and the constant instructions about what to do?
Whatever, the reality is that the weather is going to be very cold and inclement for some weeks yet, many buildings – especially schools – have desperately poor ventilation, and the need for strict hygiene measures to reduce infections is frequently overlooked. Public health interventions, as ever, are critical and urgent. The NHS is doing its best with media ‘news’ reports, but there is a need too to increase public understandings of the risks and how they can be managed by each of us, everyone in the community.
Hilary Burrage (trustee) January 2025