Why are children in this country not vaccinated against chicken pox

[Lardlizard]

?

formerbabe
Some stats here:
vk.ovg.ox.ac.uk/influenza-flu

Roughly 600 people a year die from flu in the UK in a ‘typical’ year but it can be as high as 10,000 in a year when it’s very severe or the wrong strain is vaccinated against (scientists have to work out in late summer which strain is looking most prevelant and then start manufacturing vaccines against that strain. Sometimes the strain then mutates, or another strain becomes more prevalent meaning the vaccination isn’t going to be as effective for that winter)

Children can have other side effects from flu, and also remain infectious for longer than adults so vaccinating them is important in stemming transmission as well as protecting their own health

I'd imagine most flu deaths in the UK occur in very elderly people or people who are already unwell.

When we lived in Oz, dds both got the vaccine (vacerella sp?), and when we moved back to the UK both got CP, but they still got it. Tbh it wasn’t worth it 🤷🏼‍♀️

formerbabe
Instead of imagining statistics, please use the real ones in this study, which breaks down the mortality by age group
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3859479/#!po=0.555556

Imaging statistics is a bad thing to do

I've tried many times to read these types of statistics and frankly, I'll be honest and say it goes over my head and I find it incredibly confusing. I simply want a number of how many under 18s die from flu each year in the UK?

I'd like to know how many healthy children die from flu every year in the UK seeing as they encourage parents to give their children the flu vaccine?

I don’t know but I do know that children are considered to be one of the top reasons of flu spreading (they don’t tend to be as hygenic or cover their mouths when coughing and sneezing etc) so they transmit to far more people and cause additional deaths from flu that way.

Yes I'm aware that they are big spreaders of flu. So are we just vaccinating children from the flu to protect the elderly? I'd rather my children be vaccinated from chicken pox than flu.

formerbabe
The stats are split into under 15s, and 15-45, so it would be impossible to get a figure for the number of under 18s using that study

But it does say that in years where there is a bad strain, the death rate in the under 15s age group rises nearly as fast as in the over 65s, which shows children are at risk

It is also worth pointing out that a low mortality (death) rate in recent years could well be down to widespread vaccination programmes rather than because children aren’t at risk of dying of flu

But in the years before the vaccination programme for over-2s, there were several thousand deaths in the age groups which include under 18s during a bad flu season

We've just had DS vaccined against Chicken Pox.
He had a febrile convulsion back in August 2018 due to a temperature caused by a virus. Ibuprofen is the only thing that keeps his temperature down, and you can't have it when you have chicken pox.
We paid privately at a Superdrug clinic, 2 vaccines 4-6 weeks apart at £65 each. Absolutely worth the money for us, I'd do anything to not see him go through a convulsion again.

tenbob

Thank you.

Just to clarify, I'm not anti the flu vaccine. Just baffled that its pushed so heavily when chicken pox isn't routinely given. It seems virtually medieval to me that children have to go through this when it's preventable.

Funkaccino - you’re talking utter nonsense. There’s no evidence the vaccine wears off. It has been used in the USA as part of the childhood vaccination program for about 25 years. There has been no outbreak in adults of chicken pox. Quite the opposite, there has been a huge decrease in chicken pox and deaths caused by it.

Herd immunity is a thing for all vaccines and is no different for chicken pox. Many diseases are worse if you get them as an adult, for example mumps. One of the main reasons to vaccinate children against rubella is birth defects. Because children spread it around and give it to pregnant women.

Chicken pox also causes birth defects and the risk of death to pregnant women and their babies. It can kill both children and adults.

Please stop spreading misinformation and anti vaccer nonsense.

The maximum they mention is 10-20 years protection. So it could wear off in your 20s

Why do people always leave out the ‘at least’ when they’re selectively quoting?

All vaccines become less effective over time. Chicken pox is no less effective than any other. Adults in the US and other countries are not getting chicken pox. It’s rare for a vaccinated adult to get it and if they do it’s usually a milder form.

Also some people who get “wild” chicken pox don’t develop immunity and get it more than once. That’s just life. It doesn’t mean vaccination isn’t worth it.

Speaking as someone who WAS (alongside the rest of my class around 93/4) I think the vaccination is horrific so I'm glad they don't generally give it. It was an awful thing to put a 5 year old child through (including: three weeks of burning pee because of where the spots were, also my face is still scarred from them) and would be an absolute no no for me if they offered it to my kids. Unless they have changed it now to one that no longer give symptoms.

To tackle some of the other misinformation on this thread:

Studies have shown the vaccine reduces the rate of shingles (over 14 years post vaccine) by 40%.

The two dose vaccine is about 98-99% effective when given to children, but only 75% in adolescents and adults. 75% does not mean it isn’t worth having, it’s just better to have as a child.

Information in countries with a vaccination programme so far indicates that shingles rates may see an increase in young adults, but no impact on the more vulnerable elderly populations.