[m_t]

Not in the UK, where the chickenpox vaccine isn't part of the vaccines given by the NHS.

[SEJeff]

That’s quite regrettable. It’s a safe vaccine that totally eliminates chickenpox and adult shingles. It’s a standard childhood vaccine in the US and has been for some time.

As someone who’s suffered though fairly severe shingles twice, I’m a fan of this being eliminated.

[dgl]

Interestingly the reason the NHS has for this is vaccination can result in giving adults shingles (I simplify: https://patient.info/news-and-features/should-your-child-hav... explains).

As a result shingles seems rarer in the UK (no data, from personal experience, never heard of anyone getting it).

[SEJeff]

That doesn’t make any sense though. Make the kids suffer chicken pox AND shingles as adults do adults don’t get shingles as often? Anyone who contracts chickenpox as a child is able to get shingles as an adult. Inversely, anyone who gets the chickenpox vaccine as a child is unable to get shingles as an adult.

Kids that are vaccinated for chickenpox can’t get shingles as adults. That’s a really poor way to optimize.

Adults can also get shingles vaccines, which exist, and are safe, but are only given generally to elderly and very immunocompromised.

Shingles is not common in the US, I’ve had it twice due to an extremely stressful job: I’m perhaps an outlier as I got it in two places at once (1% of people get this) and one of which was in my eye, almost causing permanent blindness. This would never have happened at all had the vaccine existed when I was a child and I was vaccinated.

[hammock]

Wow. I did not peg the NHS as an anti-vax organization

[Vecr]

Not anti-vax, they don't want to spend money on something like that. There's a reason the USA spends lots of money on healthcare and the UK does not (though it's obviously relative on a country scale). It's not through magic, it's through spending less money. Spending less money in a healthcare system demands sacrifices, some quite severe.

[cjrp]

They have a detailed explanation here https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/chickenpox-vaccin...

[Pyramus]

Not sure if irony/sarcasm will lead to a more productive discussion.

FYI chicken pox is not part of the routine vaccine schedule (in the UK) to protect unvaccinated adults:

"There's a worry that introducing chickenpox vaccination for all children could increase the risk of chickenpox and shingles in adults."

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/chickenpox-vaccin...

[hammock]

>Not sure if irony/sarcasm will lead to a more productive discussion.

Productive discussion, perhaps not. Productive thought, I believe so. If it penetrates the reflexive defensive barrier that so many have around polarizing topics, that’s a win

[Pyramus]

I see your point, and if I understand you correctly, it is evidenced by the success of the Twitter/Tik-Tok/etc. recommendation algorithms.

I'm just not sure we need productive thoughts more that productive discussions, given that we will face more collective 'resource allocation problems' over the next decades.