Children Should Be Given Chickenpox Vaccines Because of Lockdown, Say Government Advisers

The chickenpox vaccine should be introduced on the NHS for young children, government scientists have recommended, as restrictions on social mixing led to fewer cases of the common childhood illness. On Tuesday, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises UK health departments, said the jab should be given to all children in two doses when they are aged 12 months and 18 months. The UK has held off vaccinating children against chickenpox, as if natural boosting is lost, immunity in adults will drop and more shingles cases will occur. However now health bosses said they wanted to make chickenpox a “problem of the past.”...