To think it's bonkers to not vaccinate against chicken pox

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Especially if you have multiple kids who haven't had it who would probably get it back to back meaning potentially 2-3 weeks off work for parents while waiting for them to scab over.

Genuinely curious as to why people don't vaccinate. It is more expensive to have the time off work than to vaccinate and it's a nasty uncomfortable avoidable illness for kids and a standard vaccine for a lot of the rest of the world. So if you haven't, why not?

I think it is true, that exposure to the virus helps keep shingles at bay, it reactivates the immune system. But I also think the vaccine version of the virus is easier to keep down so it balances out? Not an expert, just been reading as a result of this thread.

It's very rare to get shingles more than twice, but my Dad said it was agony so you have my sympathy.

This.

I think people confuse there only being evidence so far of 30 years of immunity from the vaccine with it definitely wearing off after then. We don't actually know yet whether the vaccine will give higher or lower rates of lifelong immunity than natural infection.

Yes that would be the case cos shingles develops from chickenpox, you can't have it in isolation. One of the schools of thought was that further exposures to chickenpox would help protect against shingles in adults with the virus still in their bodies. It seems it's no longer the case but I guess at one point that supposed benefit to adults (cos shingles is, as you know, more dangerous than chickenpox) of scabby kids running around being infectious was greater than kids not getting it at all.

Of course that means you expose more ppl in the long run to shingles lol.

Eitherway, looks like that's outdated now anyway so would vax my kids if it was available to them.

It fascinated me cos it meant, at the time, that deciding to vaccinate as routine also meant allowing a few decades of higher shingles rates till all the Un-vaccinated died off. Which I found bleakly hilarious like some kind of 50's sci-fi.

Irrelevant now though cos science is cool

Science is indeed cool, and I've spent the morning neglecting my responsibilities and instead reading all about it.

I wish I could apply myself this well to the.things I actually need to do, but alas not.

@Caerulea - stats in America aren’t equivalent to Australia or UK where people feel safe enough to go to the doctor without fear of bankruptcy.

That's so depressingly true

I saw a thread here recently from a non-immune heavily pregnant woman who had been told there was chicken pox going around her older child’s school. The stress and worry this must have caused.

Yes most people get a mild dose but several people are hospitalised every year plus there are risks for pregnant women also. All this is enough to motivate me to vaccinate my dc. In my opinion it should have been around for free years ago. Not fair that people have to pay and some people most likely couldn’t afford it.

Andrew Wakefield has a lot to answer for.

In what way aren’t they equivalent? It’s the world’s largest research market for medicine.

Some 20% of Americans receive Americaid (government medical insurance) and <10% are uninsured so it’s not quite as bad as it’s made out to be.

That's not what they said at all. The recommendation to include in the vaccination programme is based on long-term evidence from many other countries, particularly on the shingles theory but also on actual benefits to the children themselves.

The higher number of children who aren't immune due to COVID restrictions was only referred to as a factor in the context of recommendations on whether a catchup programme should be introduced to ensure there isn't a pool of children who reach adulthood without either wild- or vaccine-derived immunity.

We chose not to after lots of research and discussing it with 2 pediatricians (during admissions for other things in passing not appointments for it)
If we were in a country which vaccinated against it and therefore had a lower chance of catching it early we would have, however in the UK where it widely circulates there wasn't enough evidence of lifelong immunity from the vaccine to risk it in our opinion, and the risks during pregnancy as an adult, and link to increased risk of shingles with the vaccine outweighed the benefit in our opinion.
If they had got to 11 without catching it we would have got them vaccinated then, but luckily they caught it under 5.
Absolutely not anti vaccines (we actually paid for the men b vaccine for our eldest as he just missed being eligible when it was rolled out) but on balance we felt it was a better choice to catch it in the UK.

Yes you're right. I was reading a lot while posting.

I read somewhere else that COVID has triggered a rethink but on rereading it clearly wasn't the article itself. I'm trying to find a link.

Totally agree OP. While chicken pox is mild for most, it's a really nasty virus and can become quite serious. I had a really bad case of chicken pox as a toddler which has left me with some long term side effects. I have also since had 2 bad cases of shingles, so I don't agree that having chicken pox helps keep shingles at bay! Both of my children were vaccinated against chicken pox as soon as they were old enough, horrible virus.

I have had 2 sets of the vaccines and I am still not immune according to blood tests. I do live in fear of shingles but what can I do

@OwlInTheOak
link to increased risk of shingles with the vaccine outweighed the benefit in our opinion

The risk of shingles is much higher after natural infection not after the vaccine.

Not a vaccine available when I was young, but had an horrendous bout at age 14. Later DH caught it, in his late 30s and was very unwell, to the extent I had to stay at home with him and antibiotics for the fact the spots became severely infected. I also worked with a chap, whose parents had kept him at home as a child to avoid infections, with the result he caught chickenpox, then measles from his children and on both occasions was hospitalised. One of those vaccinations really worth adding to the list, as some protection is better than none.

I’d imagine that one reason people don’t vaccinate against CP is because it’s expensive! IIRC they need 2 shots, so it was £££ for DD’s 3 dcs. But I had urged her to get it done, because Sod’s Law being what it is, you can absolutely guarantee that one of them will get it just before you’re due to go on holiday, or some major family event like a wedding. So if you have more than one, and the other(s) follow, you could be spending weeks keeping the spotty little ones away from anywhere with other people close by. A particular PITA in summer!

I also think swimming is important, and we do pay for lessons. But if I could only afford £140 I would get the vaccine as it will only get you about two terms of lessons at best compared to excellent chicken pox protection.

You've never been properly skint have you?

When you're poor, you have to make choices that will cost you more in the long run, because you literally don't have the money to choose the cheaper option right now.

When the choice is don't get the chicken pox vaccine, or starve, you're going to choose not starving

Beautifully outlined by your username!

@VimesandhisCardboardBoots Well said

Stick it on the credit card response is hilariously ignorant.

Poor people don't have credit cards. They have money lenders that can charge mega interest..

Our paediatrician advised against vaccinating DD when she was a baby : he said the vaccine only lasts about 20 years and then there's no immunity against the disease as an adult, when it's far more serious

Your paediatrician wasn't particularly bright then if they didn't understand the difference between knowing something only works for 20 euros and not knowing if something works for longer than 20 years because only 20 years had passed since first implementation.

I didn't know that there was a chicken pox vaccination until an ad from Boots popped up on Facebook in the middle of covid.
My son was 8 at the time.
But my son is disabled, non verbal, autism and has a mental age of about 12 months.
If he ever got chicken pox it would be a nightmare.
So as soon I saw the ad I then carried about a lot of my own research and then got him booked in for it a week or so later.