[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.