Great news. Chickenpox vaccines are finally on the menu in the UK! My blogpost on the success of universal chickenpox vaccination in the US, and why the UK should have made the move sooner: scientificdiscovery.dev/p/13… Chickenpox vaccines are really effective! They have massively reduced cases, hospitalizations and deaths from the disease in the US and other countries where they've been introduced. And the worries that it might increase shingles risks (which were honestly based on very limited data) turned out wrong. Adults benefitted as well, and shingles rates began to fall. In the first 25 years when vaccines were routinely provided, more than 91 million cases of chickenpox, 238,000 hospitalizations, and almost 2,000 deaths were prevented in the US. It was also cost-saving: with a net societal savings of at least 23.4 billion US dollars so far (conservative estimate). The vaccine has other benefits too. Since shingles develops from a reactivation of the chickenpox virus, vaccines prevent their development by preventing the initial neurological infection. And since chickenpox makes kids vulnerable to bacterial infections, vaccinating reduces antibiotic usage. The US was the first country in the world to offer the chickenpox vaccine universally in 1995, an example of the forward thinking decision making of the CDC. Since then, many countries have also offered universal vaccination. It's a huge shame that it's taken us so long to follow. But I'm very happy to hear that kids from now on will be protected!