I feel like this is really not going to help with rising anti vax sentiment.
Edit: Apparently the rationale is that lots of children ‘missed out’ on getting chickenpox during covid but I’m not sure vaccination is the right way forward since it then means it’s a problem for all future children rather than just this one cohort. And that’s definitely not going to help with anti vax sentiment at all because now it’s linked to covid.
Who’s broken the story? Seems like a bit of a deceased feline in order to distract people from the ongoing Tory shambles.
This is interesting. I know it’s the norm in other countries. Always thought in the UK we didn’t do it on the NHS purely because of costing implications vs what is actually quite a low risk disease for children. Be curious to see if there is a different view of the latter – i know chickenpox can be more dangerous in adults so perhaps the concern is that there are now perceived to be too many adults at risk in the event of an endemic.
I’ve got a kid in that age range and have recently been talking to my wife about getting it done for them privately, just to avoid the whole saga really when it does inevitably happen.
I got the thing aged 18, and it was pretty bloody debilitating. Dizzy, nauseous, itchy. Can not recommend.
I nearly lost an arm to Chickenpox so I’ll agree.
When I was 2 years old one of them got infected on my shoulder and turned gangrenous, started to creep down my arm, ended up having surgery which if it had been left a few more days would apparently have required amputation.
One of my earliest memories is drinking some disgusting tasting purple liquid from a plastic cup in the hospital.
It always struck me as bizarre that we should allow children to get ill and possibly scarred when a vaccine was available.
What is with the massive increase, or the apparent feeling that there is an increase, of vaccines? Feels like since covid it is a vaccine for something being recommended every week or two.
I’d say this is way past overdue.
Chickenpox is an unpleasant childhood disease that occasionally has nasty complications. But that’s not the main problem, the main problem is shingles, when the virus is reactivated, usually when you are weakened by something else. Shingles is, from my personal experience, a complete horror story and not something I’d ever want to see anyone go through, it can and does cause permanent damage and loss of function.
And I’m happy to go with the experts recommendations. Many countries do have a vaccine, many here pay for it privately, I know it is generally mild in kids but people can say the same about lots of things, and I know several kids who had it *bad*. I didn’t get it until I was a teenager and lost two weeks of school and still have scars. It was unbearable for the first few days.
I had it at 16 right when my GCSEs we’re due. It was absolutely horrible.
This is a really good move if the DoH accepts it. I had a very mild case of chickenpox as a toddler, and then I had a very serious case at 21 and was so ill. When I saw my GP he visibly recoiled because he’d never seen a case as bad as mine. I had some nasty scars for years that have finally healed into pockmarks but for a couple years it really affected my self confidence. I’m 36 now and I’ve had shingles at least 4 times since then (I stopped counting) – thankfully this wasn’t too bad as I’m still young enough to not get the debilitating pain it comes with when you’re older, but I’m still far too young for the vaccine, even privately (you have to be 50).
Btw – if you suspect you have shingles, get anti-virals from your GP within 72 hours of the first spots appearing. I think this is probably the reason my shingles have never been that bad.
Absolutely, other countries do this.
Sadly, public health is actually quite low on the Mafia ‘s agenda, and now we have crackpot AstroTurf groups like Usforthemuk, H.A.R.T etc, all of which have influencial ‘ears’, especially the Torygraph, public health is even lower down the list while tinfoil conspiracy rules.
According to current NHS website vaccination is undesirable and not recommended normally (except for those in certain high risk groups).
From NHS website
If a childhood chickenpox vaccination programme was introduced, people would not catch chickenpox as children because the infection would no longer circulate in areas where the majority of children had been vaccinated.
This would leave unvaccinated children susceptible to getting chickenpox as adults, when they’re more likely to develop a more severe infection or a secondary complication.
So, very contradictory. I guess NHS is about 10-20 years behind on research as usual. Plus spending money on children is considered a very low priority. If you are not poor you can just get it done privately for £200. So it’s only an inequity issue 👍🏻
Both our kids were vaccinated (privately), and I’ve watched their friends and their families go through very, very nasty chickenpox infections: I’m confident it was absolutely the right choice. I’ve a friend who ended up hospitalised with it when we were in our teens (her temperature ended up so high that she wasn’t coherent any more). It can be a really, really nasty illness – and that’s before you even start on shingles.
My American friends are bewildered when you mention it’s not one of the standard package of childhood vaccines here.
has anyone had the vaccine as an adult? i’ve never had chickenpox and i’m wondering if its worth me having the vaccine
I had chicken pox at 9 months, and my mum had chicken pox while pregnant with me – she could have died, she it all in her throat and everything. I did used to think I had chickenpox when I was 5, but it turns out that was the measles
Paid for my kids to have it. Not taking time off for a week each or the (admittedly low chance) of extreme complications from the disease is great. Everyone should have the same chance!
Wait… is it not common to get the vaccine in the UK? Here in Canada, almost all kids have it and many young adults including my self never got chicken pox. I can’t think of a single classmate, friend or cousin who got chickenpox here
More shit pumped into the body. No thanks.
Chicken pox isnt serious. All my kids have had them and got over them. Don’t know anyone that has been badly effected by it either.
We got our kids vaccinated at my partner’s insistence and the more I read, the more glad I am we did it.
It should, chickenpox appears to be a disease that can trigger ME/CFS
I can just imagine the Daily Mail comments section after reading this.
…y’all haven’t been vaccinating for varicella?
Incredible
It wasn’t until I worked with US clients that I learnt that a chicken pox vaccine existed.
They were dumbfounded that we don’t roll it out, and to be honest so was I once I learnt one existed
“No way are they sticking that poison in my child’s arm,.now out of my way im going to Chantelles to get the Botox we ordered online”
25 comments
I’d be very interested to see the rationale for this.
The reason it’s not given at the moment is because it’s safer to get chickenpox as a kid than as an adult, and while vaccinating would reduce the number of cases, it would also mean that unvaccinated people were more likely to get chickenpox later in life than they would’ve without the vaccine. [The NHS website explains it well here.](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/chickenpox-vaccine-questions-answers/#:~:text=Why%20is%20the%20chickenpox%20vaccination,chickenpox%20and%20shingles%20in%20adults.)
I feel like this is really not going to help with rising anti vax sentiment.
Edit: Apparently the rationale is that lots of children ‘missed out’ on getting chickenpox during covid but I’m not sure vaccination is the right way forward since it then means it’s a problem for all future children rather than just this one cohort. And that’s definitely not going to help with anti vax sentiment at all because now it’s linked to covid.
Who’s broken the story? Seems like a bit of a deceased feline in order to distract people from the ongoing Tory shambles.
This is interesting. I know it’s the norm in other countries. Always thought in the UK we didn’t do it on the NHS purely because of costing implications vs what is actually quite a low risk disease for children. Be curious to see if there is a different view of the latter – i know chickenpox can be more dangerous in adults so perhaps the concern is that there are now perceived to be too many adults at risk in the event of an endemic.
I’ve got a kid in that age range and have recently been talking to my wife about getting it done for them privately, just to avoid the whole saga really when it does inevitably happen.
I got the thing aged 18, and it was pretty bloody debilitating. Dizzy, nauseous, itchy. Can not recommend.
I nearly lost an arm to Chickenpox so I’ll agree.
When I was 2 years old one of them got infected on my shoulder and turned gangrenous, started to creep down my arm, ended up having surgery which if it had been left a few more days would apparently have required amputation.
One of my earliest memories is drinking some disgusting tasting purple liquid from a plastic cup in the hospital.
It always struck me as bizarre that we should allow children to get ill and possibly scarred when a vaccine was available.
What is with the massive increase, or the apparent feeling that there is an increase, of vaccines? Feels like since covid it is a vaccine for something being recommended every week or two.
I’d say this is way past overdue.
Chickenpox is an unpleasant childhood disease that occasionally has nasty complications. But that’s not the main problem, the main problem is shingles, when the virus is reactivated, usually when you are weakened by something else. Shingles is, from my personal experience, a complete horror story and not something I’d ever want to see anyone go through, it can and does cause permanent damage and loss of function.
And I’m happy to go with the experts recommendations. Many countries do have a vaccine, many here pay for it privately, I know it is generally mild in kids but people can say the same about lots of things, and I know several kids who had it *bad*. I didn’t get it until I was a teenager and lost two weeks of school and still have scars. It was unbearable for the first few days.
I had it at 16 right when my GCSEs we’re due. It was absolutely horrible.
This is a really good move if the DoH accepts it. I had a very mild case of chickenpox as a toddler, and then I had a very serious case at 21 and was so ill. When I saw my GP he visibly recoiled because he’d never seen a case as bad as mine. I had some nasty scars for years that have finally healed into pockmarks but for a couple years it really affected my self confidence. I’m 36 now and I’ve had shingles at least 4 times since then (I stopped counting) – thankfully this wasn’t too bad as I’m still young enough to not get the debilitating pain it comes with when you’re older, but I’m still far too young for the vaccine, even privately (you have to be 50).
Btw – if you suspect you have shingles, get anti-virals from your GP within 72 hours of the first spots appearing. I think this is probably the reason my shingles have never been that bad.
Absolutely, other countries do this.
Sadly, public health is actually quite low on the Mafia ‘s agenda, and now we have crackpot AstroTurf groups like Usforthemuk, H.A.R.T etc, all of which have influencial ‘ears’, especially the Torygraph, public health is even lower down the list while tinfoil conspiracy rules.
According to current NHS website vaccination is undesirable and not recommended normally (except for those in certain high risk groups).
From NHS website
If a childhood chickenpox vaccination programme was introduced, people would not catch chickenpox as children because the infection would no longer circulate in areas where the majority of children had been vaccinated.
This would leave unvaccinated children susceptible to getting chickenpox as adults, when they’re more likely to develop a more severe infection or a secondary complication.
So, very contradictory. I guess NHS is about 10-20 years behind on research as usual. Plus spending money on children is considered a very low priority. If you are not poor you can just get it done privately for £200. So it’s only an inequity issue 👍🏻
Both our kids were vaccinated (privately), and I’ve watched their friends and their families go through very, very nasty chickenpox infections: I’m confident it was absolutely the right choice. I’ve a friend who ended up hospitalised with it when we were in our teens (her temperature ended up so high that she wasn’t coherent any more). It can be a really, really nasty illness – and that’s before you even start on shingles.
My American friends are bewildered when you mention it’s not one of the standard package of childhood vaccines here.
has anyone had the vaccine as an adult? i’ve never had chickenpox and i’m wondering if its worth me having the vaccine
I had chicken pox at 9 months, and my mum had chicken pox while pregnant with me – she could have died, she it all in her throat and everything. I did used to think I had chickenpox when I was 5, but it turns out that was the measles
Paid for my kids to have it. Not taking time off for a week each or the (admittedly low chance) of extreme complications from the disease is great. Everyone should have the same chance!
Wait… is it not common to get the vaccine in the UK? Here in Canada, almost all kids have it and many young adults including my self never got chicken pox. I can’t think of a single classmate, friend or cousin who got chickenpox here
More shit pumped into the body. No thanks.
Chicken pox isnt serious. All my kids have had them and got over them. Don’t know anyone that has been badly effected by it either.
We got our kids vaccinated at my partner’s insistence and the more I read, the more glad I am we did it.
It should, chickenpox appears to be a disease that can trigger ME/CFS
I can just imagine the Daily Mail comments section after reading this.
…y’all haven’t been vaccinating for varicella?
Incredible
It wasn’t until I worked with US clients that I learnt that a chicken pox vaccine existed.
They were dumbfounded that we don’t roll it out, and to be honest so was I once I learnt one existed
“No way are they sticking that poison in my child’s arm,.now out of my way im going to Chantelles to get the Botox we ordered online”