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).

A few decades later than most developed countries. But better late than never, I suppose.

Yes, around £150 for 2 doses from a lot of chemists. We did for my DH before having kids and him being exposed as an adult. Totally worth it whilst it’s still circulating.

My husband got chickenpox recently and it has massively scarred his face. Would have been nice if he didn't have to suffer with that I the first place.

However, latest scientific evidence suggests that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks

Hmmmm.... not entirely surprising, given there are many decades of evidence from other countries where it has been part of the standard childhood vaccination programme for more than a generation. 😏

Will the NHS also apologise to all of the children who have had life-changing infections or the families of those who have died because of their refusal to do this until now, despite the evidence for it being so clear?

Yes, they thought lots of children being in pain and scarred for life and some dying wasn't worth the money, and also wanted to use children as human shield effectively for adults/ shingles, rather than pay for all adults to have the shingles vaccine. Unethical, to say the least.

It's good news. This thing in UK of exposing kids to viruses in a misguided attempt to protect adults when vaccines are available is horrid.

We paid for both our kids to be vaccinated. Main reason was our daughter probably hasn't had it (3x red spots, no itching/scabbing, GP not able to confirm CP), she was older primary school age by then. We vaccinated our youngest at the same time as with no family support, I knew we would struggle juggling work with 1-2 weeks of sick/isolating children.

We are grateful we could afford this as many families can't and are possibly in a more vulnerable work situation too.

I agree it's long overdue but why the lag to vaccinate adults against shingles during this time that chickenpox has diminishing circulation? I know, I know, they'll have done some kind of modelling and decided that the NHS can cope with a certain amount of us over 50s getting shingles during the next 15 years (although given it can't cope with urgent cancer referrals rn that seems unlikely) but fuck me if I get it I'll be fucked off.

I had chickenpox as a child and now I'm finding out that I could have not had it but my healthcare system chose not to vaccinate me in order to protect older adults.

Now that I am an older adult my healthcare system is similarly choosing to not protect me from shingles during the next 15 years - despite me being at risk of shingles due to policy decisions the healthcare system itself made - because as far as I can make out they just don't want to spend the bloody money on it.

Yep @Coldia

That's exactly it. And is why others in Australia, Germany, and many other countries look at the UK healthcare system in shock. It was always rubbish and now it's comparable to that in many developing countries.

First "children can be human shields. The ones who die/ are scarred for life unnecessarily are collateral damage" and now "ahhhh shingles might hurt a bit. Soz. But please don't tell everyone there's a vaccine we could give them for that as well - instead of using children dying as a substitute - because we've no intention of doing that and they'll be pissed."

It’s very good news, a recommendation at the moment, I hope the government will act on it.

I’ve had my DD vaccinated privately, second dose is in a few weeks.

@IBlinkThereforeIAm it's absolute bullshit. Get screwed both ways by a system I've been paying into for decades. Arseholes.

She's probably rather the "burden" of a 2 second booster vaccination later in life than the risk of being permanently scarred, or developing pneumonia, encephalitis or strep A, or dying of sepsis, completely avoidably. Or even being in massive discomfort for a week or more. Strange logic.

It's utterly negligent and astonishing they've got away with this for this long and even now it's a "recommendation" (re. chickenpox) and still not even proposing to fix the problem properly for shingles as well. What a shambles.

The very most basic level of healthcare is distributing vaccines for painful and dangerous viruses. No wonder so many UK residents from much poorer countries tend to return to their countries of birth whenever they need any medical or dental care!

Yy. All this pontificating about vaccine hesitancy when they themselves are fucking up a vaccination programme that is just standard for all comparable countries.

Youngest child got the chicken pox jab when he was a baby/toddler. He’s 22 now. The year after he got it eldest child caught chickenpox, and I got it too. I was a mess of spots, eldest didn’t have it too bad, youngest had two tiny spots on his belly.

We got our two done privately and it’s shameful that this hasn’t been brought in sooner. Our decision felt quite straightforward in that we were lucky enough that we could cobble the cash together though with difficulty. It’s unfair that others have the option taken away due to the expense so I’m glad it will be free. I had it as a kid and it was awful then got shingles after a traumatic birth which was awful too. So I’m all up for preventing them getting it badly or ideally not at all if possible!

The point about the burden on women is really important, not just with respect to this vaccine but to all decisions made on medicines approval in the UK. When evaluating whether a medicine is cost effective, NICE take the perspective of costs and benefits to the NHS and Social Services, but not what's called the societal perspective, which would include caregiver burden. So women's societal/economic contribution is structurally disregarded as part of this decision making.

Don't forget the burden of women who didn't catch it in childhood - so, you could have had a vaccine if your parents were wealthy or been part of the Chickenpox Roulette Party thing - don't worry, we'll treat you for your miscarriage or critically ill newborn (reluctantly because you're infectious, mind, so you'll have to be in danger of death before anybody gets within eight foot of you), but if you seem a little upset about this, it's not as if anything could have been done to prevent it, is it?

Really pleased to see this (better late than never) - we vaccinated our two DC, partly motivated by a friend's child becoming seriously ill after getting CP. Frustrating to see that one of the key reasons that the JCVI is now advising to vaccinate is that they've finally realised that significant complications of CP are more prevalent and dangerous than previously thought, but a fantastic job by the research team who pulled together the data to validate this.

There's already an increase I shingles in the area I love so this is a worry. But also pleased as chicken pox can be awful for some small children

If it helps, the vaccine has only been around since the 80s, so if you're in your 50s probably would've been too late for you regardless?

I definitely agree with your wider point though. There were other developed countries bringing it in as early as the late 80s, so anyone under 40ish and certainly 35 could've benefitted. I could've myself. Frankly, I found the idea that my DC should contract an easily avoidable disease because of some half arsed notion that it'd benefit adults offensive.

The reasoning has been the theory that there is a benefit at population level to have CP circulating amongst children in order to boost older adults' immunity to shingles. The updated advice from JCVI seems to suggest evidence from countries who routinely vaccinate might refute this.

To be fair, if this went through a standard NICE evaluation I would expect the things that you mention to be captured, because they fall within the NHS perspective. It's the societal impact that is entirely unrepresented in the cost-benefit analysis.