Damned allergies! Just a bit of venting.

Angilion

Angilion

Angilion

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I was in Boots for something, so I decided to have a flu vaccine shot while I was there. £14, not bad. 5 minute wait, no problem.

So I filled out the short questionnaire of relevant stuff. Part of which was asking about allergies. I'm allergic to latex and some glues, but that's no big deal and not relevant to a vaccination. Except that it is. The pre-packaged sterile syringe comes in a latex sheath for some reason. So no vaccination for me.

Well, that was irritating. If I want a flu vaccination, I apparently need to go through a GP get it done at a clinic/hospital. Bloody allergies!
 
Angilion vented, sus.

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(Among Us :p)
 
Angilion said:
Non-latex condoms exist, fortunately.
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I am surprised at latex being used in the vaccine construction, generally nowadays (for a bloody long time) injectable have used silicone bungs etc, for this exact reason.
Usually with vaccines, the issue related to egg allergy as an egg white allergy has a major effect, due to many vaccines using albumin at a medium for creation/containment.

Its just plain stupid for them to package the damn things in a common allergen. V stupid.
 
Destination said:
I am surprised at latex being used in the vaccine construction, generally nowadays (for a bloody long time) injectable have used silicone bungs etc, for this exact reason.
Usually with vaccines, the issue related to egg allergy as an egg white allergy has a major effect, due to many vaccines using albumin at a medium for creation/containment.

Its just plain stupid for them to package the damn things in a common allergen. V stupid.
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It surprised me too, but it's a thing. The form at Boots asked about allergies in general and very specifically for egg and latex allergies as seperate questions. I had a quick look online afterwards and found numerous references to it. What I didn't find was a reason why. There are alternatives (as you point out) and it's not even explainable as a cost-saving thing. Some sources say that I'd be OK as my allergy to latex isn't life-threatening(*), but I can understand why Boots (or any other business) would refuse in the case of any allergy.



* Specifically, contact with latex causes my skin to swell, redden, crack and fall off. Over a period of about 10 days. With a lot of itching. Seriously inconvenient, but it's not going to kill me. No anaphalaxis (EDIT: anaphylaxis? one of those two :) ). And yes, for anyone who is wondering, a condom was how I initially found out about my allergy to latex. That was a very unpleasant week or so. The doctor I saw told me that latex allergy was fairly common as allergies go (all allergies are at least quite rare, obviously, or else they wouldn't be allergies) so it seems really strange that it would be used in any way in anything connected to vaccination let alone mass vaccination.
 
dirtychinchilla said:
I can’t get it at all. My immune-suppressant medication, which qualifies me for the vaccine free, also disqualifies me as it’s the wrong kind apparently.
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That's a raw deal. The thing that makes it more important for you to have the vaccination makes it impossible for you to have the vaccination.
 
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