Parents have been left asking the same question after the goverment announced plans to roll out a new jab. The government’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and England’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty, have received mixed reactions following news of the launch of a new vaccine for children.
Professor Whitty became a household name during the coronavirus pandemic, appearing alongside alongside the now Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation, Sir Patrick Vallance, in televised daily updates with then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson. On Friday (August 29), he and the DHSC announced plans to roll out the jab, which will be available from January 2026 – though many UK parents have labelled it pointless.
“We’re launching a chickenpox vaccination programme which will protect around half a million children each year,” an update from the DHSC read on X. “From January 2026, eligible children will get an MMRV vaccine to protect against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox. Eligibility will be announced in due course.”
Professor Whitty also took to the social network to speak about the news, adding: “Chickenpox is common. Usually it is just unpleasant, but it can be severe or life threatening. A long established vaccine to prevent it will be offered to all children rather than only those who can pay. Immunity by vaccination is safer than by infection.”
Writing in response, X users were divided on the news, with some recalling how parents used to throw “chicken pox parties” in a bid to immunise their children in decades gone by. “I think I’ll trust the process,” one person revealed. “I don’t know a single person that suffered badly enough from chickenpox to warrant a vaccine.”
A second added: “There were chicken pox party’s when I was younger. We all got it, I never met anyone that had it more than once. Bit of calamine, week later cured for life.”
A third concurred: “When I grew up, were encouraged to try and catch chickenpox from a friend or sibling if they were infected (just playing together etc). We all lived. It was pretty harmless.”
Meanwhile, a fourth X user claimed: “I dont think anyone believes that injections are safer than natural immunity. I certainly don’t. The last thing we saw where such a thing was proclaimed as better than getting the illness, went horribly wrong and all assurances were disproved.”
While chickenpox usually causes an unpleasant infection that goes away on its own, however, it can rarely cause more significant complications. In 2023, when the vaccine was first prosposed, mum Leanne Passey expressed her support after almost losing her then-five-year old daughter, Reign. The child developed a potentially fatal “flesh-eating” strep A infection, a complication of having contracted chickenpox.
Thankfully, the little girl survived the ordeal, buut it left her with a scar on her right side. Leanne said she “1,000%” backs the call from NHS advisers that all children in the UK should be given a chickenpox vaccine between the ages of 12 and 18 months.
“I wouldn’t want any mother to go through [what I did]. It’s horrendous, you never expect it to happen to you until it does,” she explained.
The government states that the vaccine rollout will “help raise the healthiest generation of children ever, while reducing sick days and time parents take off work”. It adds: “It will mean kids miss fewer days in nursery and school while parents will not need to take time off work to care for them. Research shows that chickenpox in childhood results in an estimated £24 million in lost income and productivity every year in the UK. The rollout will also save the NHS £15 million a year in costs for treating the common condition.”
Minister of State for Care, Stephen Kinnock, said of the vaccination: “We’re giving parents the power to protect their children from chickenpox and its serious complications, while keeping them in nursery or the classroom where they belong and preventing parents from scrambling for childcare or having to miss work.
“This vaccine puts children’s health first and gives working families the support they deserve. As part of our Plan for Change, we want to give every child the best possible start in life, and this rollout will help to do exactly that.”