To hunt down these bastards who exposed my son to chicken pox

[littleredbumblebee]

User name changed as outing

went on a caravan holiday last week for 5 nights and my son who is 11 played with some kids from other families and had a great time- all good

On the last night one of the smaller boys was running around with no shirt on and he has spots, one of the other families asked and his mum said oh he has chicken pox but we though getting away would do him good.

I told her my son had never had chicken pox and said I bloody hoped my son was not going to come down with them. One of the other parents also said they should not have brought the kid. Basically it ended up with them going inside the caravan in a huff. The next day we all left

So today the day before my son is use to start at high school he woke up covered in spots and now has chicken pox and won’t be in for his first week at high school. Tonight he is now crying saying he won’t name any friends now and he won’t know his way around and no amount of comforting will calm him down. Very few kids for his school are going to this high school and he is so upset he will have missed out on making friends.

We have been in touch with his form tutor who has been great and has said they will support him and catch him up but I could bloody scream. How can some people be so bloody selfish.

You may, but it is much much milder.

Of course it is just tongue in cheek, @Retiredfromearlyyears - the OP is just venting and having a bit of a rant on here.

There is no indication it wears off in adulthood - we know it lasts at least 30 years because those who got it 30 years ago, when it was new, are still immune. We don't know whether it'll last for life but it seems more likely than not that it will.

The NHS won't pay for it because they have calculated that it is cheaper to let children get chickenpox and thereby give adults a little immune boost (because encountering chickenpox when you've already had it boosts your immunity to shingles) than it is to vaccinate against both chickenpox and shingles and get rid of the whole problem. I actually think this is a fundamentally immoral approach - I don't see why my children should get an illness which is always unpleasant and sometimes has severe complications to help out herd immunity for adults to a disease for which there is a vaccination. So mine are vaccinated. But it is the reason - see here for a good explanation: https://www.theguardian.com/science/occams-corner/2014/may/15/real-reason-british-public-chickenpox-vaccine-shingles

Incidentally, this all works on the idea that children with chickenpox are allowed to wander round encountering (and so producing this immune response) in others. If children with chickenpox are isolated then there is no benefit at all. So the parent in the OP was actually doing just what the NHS wants...

To all of you saying 'you should have had your child vaccinated' it's no ones business whether or not you have your child vaccinated & no one should be pressured into it. It's a personal choice.

Even having the vaccine children, can still catch the virus.

It is shitty of the parents though to let their child play with other children without mentioning it to parents. Some children could have other medical issues whereby catching chickenpox could be far worse for them. I'm sure your Son will be fine & make new friends once he starts high school. Good luck to him.

@MoreDangerousThanAWomanScorned

Yes, I know that's why they held back initially, but that's from 2014 and that theory has been debunked pretty conclusively - the countries where it's been introduced as standard (late eighties in Japan and Korea, 1995 US) haven't seen an uptick in shingles. The NHS is great in some ways, but very lumbering when it comes to changes in thinking/protocols.

Yes I was being tongue in cheek when I said I wanted to hunt them down. I thought people would have got that. I have also said under my breath I am going to kill my husband when he came in blind drunk once (once in our 22 year marriage) and peed all the way up the stairs. Guess what- he still breathes- yes he did have the clean it up himself

My son as good thanks, they don’t seem to be bothering him that much and he just feels run down. Unfortunate he has got some new ones today so he will be off school all week. Schools are putting things in place for when he starts x

Oh, sorry, I thought you were genuinely asking for the reason rather than rhetorically. I completely agree with you. It does look like there may finally be some movement on it? https://www.gov.uk/government/news/jcvi-recommends-chickenpox-vaccine-in-childhood-immunisation-programme

It is everyone's business, by its very nature, whether children are vaccinated. It's not just "a personal thing" any more than the decision to cough without covering your face is. Public health is about everyone. Everyone is at risk from viruses and they cause a lot of problems, from household disruption to death.

Yes children can still catch it if vaccinated, but a mild version, and the chances of catching it are very low if vaccinated. Vaccination also has the advantage of affording herd immunity at population level if enough people have the jabs, so even people who have been bitten by the big pharma conspiracy theory bug or those who are in thrall to theories of individualism and don't believe there's such a thing as society will have a much smaller chance of being exposed.

However, it's much better to be exposed - CP is not something you want to catch as a teen or adult - and currently in the UK the chance of exposure is high, thanks to the NHS and the prevailing climate of every man for himself.

In the wider context of exposure to CP, he's not a victim. CP boy at the campsite saved the OP the cost of the second jab and probably saved the DS from getting the more severe CP that can happen after age 13/ puberty.

The timing was unfortunate, there's no denying that, but this is the only downside to catching it (apart from the medical risks that come with CP, which hopefully won't affect DS)

Given the fact that CP is contagious before the pocks appear, it might not have been the boy at the campsite who exposed the DS to it, and DS himself might have unwittingly exposed many others before the OP realised he was ill.

I would have thought it very unlikely that you would hunt down the virus spreaders and can't believe anyone seriously thought you meant it. It was obviously tongue in cheek. It makes you wonder why people deliberately misunderstand. Anyway, glad your little lad isn't feeling too ill and I'm sure he'll soon make friends. The school sounds really sympathetic and I bet it happens every year

CP boy at the campsite saved the OP the cost of the second jab

How? He had an allergic reaction to the first. He is not having the second. No money was saved courtesy of the boy at the campsite and his irresponsible mother.

@SoupDragon I read it as poster adding a witty reason in line to post she was referring to about how perpetrators are really doing people favours. I might be mistaken though.

If not, it's soon to be darkly followed by comments such as 'Fred's mum deliberately gave my child contaminated food. Phew, that's saved me money on school bus fare and food tomorrow.'

Children in other western countries are being vaccinated. In the UK it's always about saving money. Always. We then get some pontificating why it's science, but it's not. It's just cheap, cheap, cheap.

The op has already explained that he had the CP vaccine first dose when he was 7 but reacted badly to it, hence why her GP advised not to have the second one.

Why aren’t people at least reading the OP’s updates on the thread? I can understand not reading every post on a long thread, but if you click on See All under the OP, you can read all the posts by the OP, and maybe avoid looking like a dick for criticising her for not vaccinating her son!

FFS, what is wrong with people. I used to volunteer by a children’s activity and a kid was dropped off by her mother and during a chat with the child it transpired she hadn’t been to school in days because she had CHICKENPOX! Mum had obviously got fed up and dumped her child with us for a couple hours. I have never had chicken pox and was in no hurry to get it so left immediately.

You can still get chicken pox after the vaccine. I had the vaccine and had chillen pox TWICE!! Very mild when I was 12 and very awful when I was 22!! My sister in law, vaccinated, just got chicken pox at 36, her daughter also vaccinated as a baby caught it from her mum, she’s 10. Very insensible comment!

I got chicken pox when I was 36, and I was really bloody ill.

It's a bummer in terms of timing, but far better than getting it as an adult. The parents of the child he caught it from are twats though, so you're not unreasonable to be angry OP.

I got chicken pox when I was 36, and I was really bloody ill.

It's a bummer in terms of timing, but far better than getting it as an adult. The parents of the child he caught it from are twats though, so you're not unreasonable to be angry OP.

Those are very bad odds - the vaccine is 70% to 90% effective for preventing chickenpox and more than 95% effective for preventing severe chickenpox.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varicella_vaccine

my son started year 7 today and vomited outside the lunch hall
He is upset that he was sick in front of lots of people and that he now can’t go back until Monday.
Unfortunately it’s not great but he won’t be the only one who is going to miss the beginning of school.
Hope the chicken pox aren’t too bad for your son

Sorry if I missed it - why wasn’t he vaccinated?

The app doesn't have that feature. Or maybe some versions of the app don't - mine doesnt.