A lot of people will be happy about this (NHS roll-out of chicken pox vaccine)

[enchantedsquirrelwood]

NHS to roll out chickenpox vaccine for children (thetimes.co.uk)

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises the government, said the vaccine should be given to youngsters in two doses when they are aged 12 months and 18 months.
They said the vaccine, known as the varicella jab, would dramatically reduce circulating chickenpox and prevent most severe cases and deaths in children.
The JCVI has also recommended a temporary catch-up programme for older children, warning that pandemic restrictions suppressed chickenpox so there is currently a larger than usual pool without immunity.
The chickenpox vaccine has been given in other countries, including the US and Australia, for many years but the NHS has always said there is a worry that introducing it in the UK could increase the risk of chickenpox and shingles in adults.

They had feared that a childhood chickenpox vaccination programme might mean that unvaccinated children would go on to get chickenpox as adults, when cases can be more severe.
However, latest scientific evidence suggests that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks, and the Department of Health and Social Care will now look at the best ways to implement the JCVI recommendation. It means the chickenpox vaccine is likely to be added to other routine childhood vaccinations, such as MMR.

DH and I were talking about this yesterday. Rubella is bad for unborn babies and so well before MMR girls were vaccinated against it (i was at 12) so we were wondering why chicken pox was treated differently (and indeed slapped cheek disease, which I had not even heard of before I caught it from my three year old ds, and discovered that that is something you don't want when you are pregnant either).

About time. It was absolutely ridiculous that a vaccine that is safe, and a routine childhood vaccine in many other countries, was not given in the UK for policy reasons, resulting in parents who could afford it getting vaccinated and those who couldn’t at risk of getting a bad case of chicken pox.

And also pleased that I will no longer have family and friends questioning my decision to vaccinate my children now if it’s part of the routine vaccines.

Good. I had my children vaxxed privately at some expense. When it swept through eldest class lots of parents told me they wish they had done the same!

I agree about time. Dts are older now but we're so I'll with it, one ended up in hospital. I don't think the private cab ones were around then or I certainly was t aware of them.

I've got a thread going on Shingrix for people who are 50+ and immune-compromised - it's on the Autoimmune board in Health, if anyone's interested.

If it was dangerous for girls to have it the JCVI would say so

Yes, I was vaccinated at Boots a couple of years ago. It was around £150 and I had no side affects from it.

I paid for both my youngest 2 kids to have the jab privately. My older 2 had chicken pox in the nursery ages and it wasn't too bad at all but then my friends daughter was really really poorly with CP. She ended up on a ventilator and it scared me. Why would I risk that for my children if I can prevent it?

Both of my kids were immunised as special cases on the NHS as I am immunocompromised and don't have immunity to CP and don't seem to be able to develop it.
As a bonus the boys have avoided suffering. Glad to hear that they are now recommending it, we are an outlier to other western countries that have it in the schedule for years.

I've always been under the impression that it's not offered here as it's considered expensive vs the risk. But I think it's something Invisible Woman author could really look at - who bears the brunt of the cost of looking after children who have to be quarantined for between 1 week and 2? Women, inevitably.

I'm really pleased they're seriously considering rolling it out in the UK. It's been terribly backward. I had planned to get it for both my DC before they started school (I didn't want them missing up to 2 weeks of school for a completely preventable illness) but both got it before I could get it organised and before they started school.

@NotLactoseFree that is an incredibly profound hypothesis! Thank you for sharing it. Hell, if I were you I’d even write her to ask/chat about it, seriously. What a cool reframing if the issue.

And yes, I agree with others on the UK being behind and backward on this. I’m from the US and it’s been a common vaccine there for decades. I was shocked to learn on MN a few years ago that the UK government didn’t recommend it. They actually even advised against it at one point. Bonkers!

I wasn't sure if you're being serious or sarcastic.

But in case you are serious, it looks like, based on this article, the cost vs risk that I always assumed was an issue, is not correct. The article seems to suggest that there was a view that the longer term risk of giving vaccines outweighed the short term risk to children of having chickenpox. So my cost/risk theory is moot.

Or perhaps it's another factor that hasn't been taken into account, I'm not sure. [shrug]

Great news! I had my son vaccinated privately (in Dublin at the time) and the doctor said he wished he could do this for every child, as he’d seen some terrible cases. Glad to hear that UK children will be protected. (Nudge, nudge, Ireland).

@NotLactoseFree I’m being totally serious! I love sideways critical thinking like this that uncovers possibilities and ideas. 😀 It genuinely got me thinking.

EDIT: it’s a bit outing but I’m a design and innovation facilitator and tend to work with communities to fix problems using design tools. This is why your post tickled me so much. It’s exactly the type of idea or question we would uncover during a workshop. 🙂

@JingsMahBucket phew! I think that Invisible Woman opened my eyes to a LOT of things like this. Then Covid came along and there were a bunch of situations where, again, women seemed to be more impacted...

Think it's a great idea but there's a lot who won't take it up after the covid vaccine I think (the microchip/poison groups)

@NotLactoseFree yep, so much unpaid labour being pushed onto women but the world still isn’t designed for them all.

Mine were vaccinated privately but I'm glad they're thinking about adding it to the routine schedule.

Added to which, we already know that the disease itself doesn't always give lifelong immunity anyway.

But I think it's something Invisible Woman author could really look at - who bears the brunt of the cost of looking after children who have to be quarantined for between 1 week and 2

Yes I had CP when I was very young and so did my ds with no ill-effects beyond the length of the illness. But you are right the burden of looking after kids falls disproportionately on women. I always say vaccination is an economic argument, not a health one - it is cheaper to vaccinate people than deal with their ill health.

Yes you can.

Finally. My kids and I are privately vaccinated.
My older cousin had it, intensive care for ages and she is disfigured for life (think extreme scarring on face and upper body, needs to wear specialist make up for burn victims). My younger cousin “only” spend 5 days in intensive care, minimal scaring.

The story has just been on BBC News, with a short interview with Prof Andrew Pollard the Chair of the JCVI.

It's a great point about women's unpaid caring labour.

Good to hear. We are way behind the times on this.

Was so pleased to see this and hope it gets rolled out (eventually!). DC1 was vaccinated at the age of 4. DC2 is 2 and I've been meaning to get them vaccinated ever since they were old enough to be but not gotten around to it yet. A reminder for me to book an appt!