Flu and Covid: At-risk groups targeted with vaccines

Joseph is one of 99,000 people living with diabetes in Wales. They are six times more likely to die from flu and are also at high risk from Covid.

He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2016 while at his first year in university, then the following year was diagnosed with an auto-immune liver disease, making him more vulnerable.

While he manages his conditions well, he ended up in hospital with flu last Christmas.

“I think for the sake of having a sore arm (with the vaccine), I would trade that any day over having flu,” said Joseph, who works for a startup company called Love to Visit.

“It’s the most ill I’ve probably ever been, and it has definitely made me a lot more wary going into this winter now, I would do anything not to have flu again ever.”

Last year he attended his brother’s wedding the week before Christmas, but became unwell days afterwards, and ended up in A&E.

“My blood sugars were all over the place, and it’s probably the worst I’ve ever felt in my life. It was horrendous.

“I started having my flu jab after my diabetes diagnosis, and it’s just something I’ve always had – now I’m glad I do have it, because I dread to think how I would have been if I hadn’t had it.

“Obviously, being diabetic. Needles don’t really bother me and I’m kind of used to being prodded, but it’s definitely worth having a needle in the arm and being sore for a couple of days, than getting flu.”