Interviewer(s): Timothy Price
Interviewee(s): Participant 09

Timothy Price: Now so we can get started by doing a kind of a consent process. So I'm going to read you a series of statements and I'll just have you Say yes, I agree to them, or no, I don't.

Participant 09: Alright, Okay.

Timothy Price: Alright, so the first statement is I confirm that I have read the information sheet for this study. I've had the opportunity to consider the information asked questions and have had these questions answered satisfactorily.

Participant 09: Yeah I agree

Timothy Price: I understand that my participation is voluntary, and that I am free to withdraw at any time without giving any reason. I also understand that I can decline to answer any questions during the interview.

Participant 09: I agree.

Timothy Price: I understand the information collected during my interview may be looked at by other researchers from Newcastle University who are working on or assisting with this study. I give permission for these individuals to have access to this information.

Participant 09: I agree

Timothy Price: Understand that information collected during the interview may be shared with other researchers for use in future researcher teaching purposes and that the data will be thoroughly anonymized first

Participant 09: I agree

Timothy Price: I understand that the interview will be audio or video recorded according to my preference typed out and all identifying personal details will be removed.

Participant 09: I agree.

Timothy Price: I understand that direct quotations may be taken from what I say and use in research or publications, but I will not be identifiable from these quotations.

Participant 09: I agree.

Timothy Price: And I agree to take part in this study.

Participant 09: Yeah, I agree.

Timothy Price: Excellent. And there's just two last things. So if you'd like to receive a copy of the research findings, I can send those to you after the studies completed and send those to your email address.

Participant 09: Yeah, that's fine. I know my wife is involved as well so she'll probably get a copy as well. So yeah, send them to me anyway.

Timothy Price: Excellent. Yep. I can do that. So that'll be in August of this year once the project is completed. And I can also mail you a hard copy of all the study documents if you'd like. Or if you prefer email that's fine too.

Participant 09: Email is fine

Timothy Price: Alright, Excellent. So thank you very much for that. That's all that out of the way. So you have four children. Is that right?

Participant 09: Yeah, I've got four.

Timothy Price: Yeah, and it's two sets of twins it looks like?

Participant 09: Yeah. That's correct, yeah.

Timothy Price: So two of your children or seven and two are four. Is that right, that's right, yeah. So how are they doing with, you know, all of them being at home these days?

Participant 09: They haven't strangled each other yet which I'm considering a plus point. For the most part they're alright because they have siblings to play with and stuff. They kind of, you know, they're not suffering from any kind of loneliness, which I'm thinking some of their are. I think sometimes just want to get away from each other. We've got quite a big garden and a decent sized house so it's going okay.

Timothy Price: Yeah with four children I think you would need a decent sized garden. I cant imagine it would work any other way.

Participant 09: No

Timothy Price: Yeah. Um, so can you tell me a little bit about what you know about the flu? when you hear the word flu what kind of things do you think of?

Participant 09: So obviously I think of flu as being the influenza virus. It's basically associated with general things, it's your aches and pains, your nausea, your headaches. It kind of manifests as cold symptoms just on a much worse basis. Quite a high death rate around the world, not so much in the UK, but certainly in less developed parts of the world, in elderly people and people who are more vulnerable to infection from other things anyway. Yeah.

Timothy Price: Yeah, sure. Um, so if one of your children were starting to get the flu. What symptoms would you expect to see in them?

Participant 09: Probably just generally off color, not acting themselves. Maybe a bit grumpy and tired, lethargic and and along with that complaining of aches and pains. And you know, generally not wanting to do anything that they normally want to do.

Timothy Price: Yeah, that's good. Um, so is flu, something you would be worried about your child one of your children became ill with? Or is it something that is more like, well, if they get it you know they get it. Obviously, you don't want it to happen.

Participant 09: Yeah, I put it down as one of these things that if they're going to catch it, they're going to catch it. Theres a certain amount of precaution you can take but you can't just live your life hiding from everything. So if they did show symptoms I wouldn't be worried, unless they got to the point where obviously if it was a hospitalisation then I'd be really worried.

Timothy Price: Yeah, yeah, of course. Um, so can you point to me as far as what you think getting sick with the flu is like for kids. So not necessarily symptoms, but more like is it a serious illness? How long you think they'd be sick for? You know, those kids if things, if you know what I mean.

Participant 09: Yeah, I think that the majority, it wouldn't be that serious.It would be more just a case of maybe a week of recuperation needed. But then obviously if its more, more serious than we could be looking at a good three or four weeks, potentially hospital visits or even hospitalisation full stop. Obviously there are an antiviral meds, but I'm totally unware if they're possible to give to children so I don't know if that would shorten it.

Timothy Price: Yeah, absolutely. So have any of your children ever gotten the flu before? Do you know anyone whose children have gotten the flu?

Participant 09: Uh no, I don't know of anyone’s children. Certainly not any of mine.

Timothy Price: Yeah. Um, so if you want to learn more about a sickness, like the flu, where would you go to get that information as far as like symptoms treatment options, you know, any thing.

Participant 09: Me personally I'd probably go to the NHS website which obviously in the UK is the authority. But then there are others the CDC in America website has details, the WHO has quite a lot of information on there as well just as a general list of what the symptoms around the world are.

Timothy Price: Yeah. So you would start with the NHS but then kind of move on to some of those other like health authority kind of websites.

Participant 09: Yeah, I like to try, rather than just having a single approach to have a more general, sometimes some of the smaller symptoms may not always be listed on one website, they just kind of get buried.

Timothy Price: Yeah. Um, have you ever talked to a medical professional about the flu like maybe your children's, one of your kids' GP or like a health visitor or just any other you know medical professional?

Participant 09: Not about flu specifically in children, but about myself I have, yeah.

Timothy Price: Oh okay, was it because you were ill?

Participant 09: Yeah, yeah, I had the flu.

Timothy Price: Ah yeah. So what do you think the benefits are of having your children get the flu vaccine?

Participant 09: Its risk mitigation in my mind. There is very, very, very little risk in giving them the vaccine. It's well proven well serving vaccince. And rather than them getting ill, and it might be mild, you know, you never know, it could turn serious. So I'd rather not take the chance and I'll get them the vaccine to stop them from turning, you know, likely to stop them from getting, you know, any sort of potential serious illness.

Timothy Price: Yeah, absolutely. So the, it seems like the main benefit for you. It would just be, you know, that way the kids can't get sick right?

Participant 09: Yeah, yeah, yeah, pretty straightforward.

Timothy Price: Yeah. Um, so, do you think there are downsides of getting the flu vaccine and that can be, when I say downsides here, I don't just mean side effects. I mean, like, uou know, maybe it's inconvenient, maybe it takes a really long time you know any downsides you can think of at all.

Participant 09: No I don't see any down sides for children in the UK. It's free. It's obviously just the nasal, nasal spray. So there's no inconvenience there. Kids wine afterwards a bit, you know someone’s sticking something up their nose, but aside from that, no there's no, no, no side effects anything I'd worry about or anything like that. So no real downsides

Timothy Price: Yeah, so pretty, pretty easy. Like you said, pretty straightforward. So if you want to learn more about a vaccine, like whether it is something that would be beneficial for your children, whether it's something that's recommended for them. Where would you go to get that information?

Participant 09: Uh the WHO. Well, I would use google in the UK to find out who was creating the vaccine and then I would go to that website and find out more information on their website.

Timothy Price: Okay, so you'd actually look for the the vaccine manufacturers information about that it?

Participant 09: Yeah, yeah.

Timothy Price: Have you. So have your, your four year old children have they received the flu vaccine this year?

Participant 09: Not in 2020 but they did get it, at the backend of, well it would have been last year now wouldn't it? But it would have been the back end of 2019.

Timothy Price: Yeah, in like the autumn of 2019.

Participant 09: Yeah.

Timothy Price: Yeah. And did you when they got the vaccine. Did you talk to their GP or like any, you know, nurses, about the vaccine at that time, or did you not have any--

Participant 09: I personally was at sea, so it was my wife that took them for it.

Timothy Price: Okay. Well, that makes that easy. Do you remember if there were any concerns about like anything that you needed to talk that she needed to talk to the GP about at the time?

Participant 09: No, there was no concerns. My wife is a PhD. So she does, she's a research scientist. She did a lot of research, previous to any a vaccine that my kids get anyway. And she was more than happy and by that and so am I.

Timothy Price: Yeah. So you were, so it sounds like what you're saying is your wife had done a lot of research and sort of you trusted her research into it and agreed with that conclusions?

Participant 09: Yeah.

Timothy Price: So how important was it to you that your children would be vaccinated for the flu. Is it something that as soon as you, you know, weren't they were eligible, you were making an appointment or was it something that was more like, Well, you know. We'll see.

Participant 09: I'd put it up there as pretty important because obviously nobody wants to see their kids sick with anything. And again, you know, just, by building antibodies throughout childhood it helps them going forward.

Timothy Price: Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Um, so, do you remember, you know, obviously, it was a while ago now and it's a lot, a lot has happened since then but do you remember how you learned that your children were eligible to get the vaccine this past fall? Like, did you get a letter, a text message, phone call?

Participant 09: It was a letter from the NHS. We might have had a text message from the doctor, like our own practice. But those all go to my wife's phone because I'm away a lot of the time so I wouldn't get it.

Timothy Price: Yeah. Um, so once you had gotten that letter. And again, obviously, this was a while ago. But once you've gotten that letter, Do you know how easy the process was getting them vaccinated. Was it just ring up the GP make an appointment. You go in, or was it.

Participant 09: Yeah, it was. I think we just rang up the GP, got an appointment, and brought them in, fortnightly at the most.

Timothy Price: Yeah. Was it so as any part of the process challenging at all, or was it all just very straightforward?

Participant 09: Very straightforward.

Timothy Price: Yeah, right.

Um, so my last kind of few questions here are just more general and they help me learn your thoughts surrounding vaccination as a whole and any of the benefits that it may not have for your children.

So have your children received any other vaccinations, like the standard childhood vaccinations?

Participant 09: Yeah they've all had their full standard childhood vaccinations up to date.

Timothy Price: And can you explain how you decided they should receive those vaccinations? or was there even a decision to be made there at all?

Participant 09: There was no real decision to be made at all. I've very much in favour of vaccinations and as is my wife. It was just "that’s what we're going to do."

Timothy Price: Yeah, absolutely. So it's, again, it seems like from what you said your wife, and you as well, have a lot of faith in sort of science and the medical science rounding vaccines. So you just sort of trust. You know, trust that that science has determined and safe and that's all you need to be convinced. Is that accurate?

Participant 09: Yeah I'd say thats accurate. There is a certain amount of Googling done and looking at the NHS website to learn about the side effects just so that we need to know what to expect off the back of it. Just in case, you know if the kids start having something afterwards, like after the meningitis vaccine we knew what we were looking for. But yeah, I have full faith that these things are safe.

Timothy Price: Yeah, absolutely. Um, so have you personally had the flu vaccine is year?

Participant 09: Yes. Right. Yes I have done.

Timothy Price: Yeah. And was that something that was made available through your employer or was that something you sought out independently?

Participant 09: Something I sought out myself.

Timothy Price: Yeah, do you receive the flu vaccine on the NHS or is that something that you had to seek out privately?

Participant 09: Private paid for.

Timothy Price: Yeah, um, that's great. So yeah, just kind of, you know, those last couple questions are just trying to get a sense for sort of how important vaccination is what what sort of priority, you put on it. So that's great. Thank you. Um, so that is actually all my questions we got through them pretty quickly, which it tends to be fairly easy to do when your answers are relatively straightforward.

Participant 09: Yeah I imagine that speaking to an antivaxer is a lot more difficult.

Timothy Price: Well some people certainly have a lot more to say about it than others, thats for sure. But that, so the kind of the last thing that I like to close on is just. Is there anything else about the flu, or the flu vaccine, or vaccination in general, anything that I didn't ask about that you want to speak to during this interview?

Participant 09: No, no, I'm pretty happy with all of that. As I say, my wife is a research scientist so she tends to tell me what I need to know and anything else I can find out myself.

Timothy Price: Alright, so I'm going to go ahead and stop the recording here.