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I get flu and Covid jabs every year and I stop side effects with 1 common household item
Reach Daily Express | October 12, 2025 6:39 AM CST

October is here and it's vaccine season once again, with various groups of people being called in to get their annual flu jabs, as well as Covid and other common inoculations like whooping cough and pneumonia.

But it's not just the elderly that will be getting dosed up this winter. I'm only in my mid-30s, and I have to get flu and Covid vaccines every year thanks to my weak immune system, brought on by Coeliac disease. And after about the 20th jab, you start to work out how to beat the side effects.

Coeliac is a failing of the immune system relating to your digestive system. In short, the body attacks gluten, aka wheat and barley, mistaking the harmless wheat proteins for damaging invaders and in turn, damages the digestive system.

My body basically attacks itself if I eat bread, flour, pasta, or anything with even a trace of gluten in it, which in turn makes my body weaker than average - I have poor nutritional absorption, lower than average bone density and a lower than average life expectancy.

As such, because my immune system doesn't work properly, I'm eligible for a free Covid jab every year, as well as a free flu jab, on the NHS. I also got given all sorts of vaccines for things I'd never heard of, like Meningitis W.

The trick, I've discovered, to fighting side effects is good ol' paracetamol. The little drug seems to block side effects and instantly resolve any minor issues.

If I get a sore arm, or any fever developing, I just take two paracetamol.

The NHS guidance for Covid vaccines says: "If you or your child get side effects, rest and take paracetamol or paracetamol for children to help you feel better."

This lines up with what the NHS recommends for Meningitis B vaccines. It says that paracetamol can be given to a baby after a Meningitis B vaccine to reduce chances of fever.

It says: "Giving paracetamol soon after vaccination - and not waiting for a fever to develop - will reduce the risk of your child having a fever.

"With paracetamol, fewer than 1 in 5 children will get a fever and nearly all of these are mild (below 39°C).

"The paracetamol will also reduce the chance of your baby being irritable or suffering discomfort (such as pain at the site of the injection)."


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