Chickenpox jabs introduced as experts warn many children in England start school without vaccinations
England needs to “wake up” to its faltering infant vaccination programme, experts have warned, as it was revealed that one in five children start primary school unprotected from serious infectious diseases.It comes as the government announces a new vaccination programme for chickenpox from January, meaning that GPs will offer eligible children a combined vaccine for measles, mumps, rubella and varicella – the clinical term for chickenpox – as part of the routine infant vaccination schedule.According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the target for vaccine uptake among children in order to achieve herd immunity is 95%.But figures for 2024-25 released by the UK Health Security Agency on Thursday show that no childhood vaccine has met this requirement.Only 83.
7% of five-year-olds have received both doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, while uptake of the four-in-one preschool booster vaccine – which protects against polio, whooping cough, tetanus and diphtheria – stood at 81,4% among five-year-olds in England,The low uptake rates have prompted fears that children will be more vulnerable to infectious diseases as they begin primary school in September,The government has urged parents to make sure their children are up to date with their vaccines,In July a child died in Liverpool after contracting measles, the first such death in the UK in a decade.
Only 73% of children in Liverpool have received the necessary two shots to protect against measles.Prof Helen Bedford, from the UCL Institute of Child Health, said: “The country is facing a serious wake-up call, because if we continue down this path we’re going to see many more children unwell and we’re going to see more deaths.“Measles, among these other diseases, is incredibly infectious and to keep the disease at bay we really do need much higher levels of uptake than what we’re seeing at the moment.”She added: “The other big problem [for vaccine uptake] is that there are vast inequalities in uptake.We know that uptake is also lower among some ethnic minority groups, notably black Caribbean and African populations.
”The data reveals stark regional inequalities.While more than 90% of five-year-olds in the north-east of England received both doses of the MMR vaccine, only seven in 10 (69.6%) of eligible Londoners had received the same.Meanwhile, regional uptake of the four-in-one booster ranged from 88.9% in the north-east of the country to 63.
8% in London.London’s mobile population is a significant reason for its low uptake, according to Bea Taylor, a senior fellow at the Nuffield Trust.“Parents and carers in the capital are more likely to face barriers including having to move house regularly, which can make it difficult to stay registered with a local GP and receive reminders about vaccinations,” she said.Prof Kate Pickett, an academic co-director at Health Equity North, said it was “clear there are still challenges to overcome to address regional disparities in child vaccination rates”.The UK is the worst of the G7 nations regarding MMR vaccination uptake, according to the WHO: as of 2024 only 89% of children had received their first MMR jab.
Globally, millions of children are at risk of lethal diseases owing to vaccine coverage having stalled or reversed, according to the largest study of its kind.Dr Helen Skirrow, a clinical research fellow at Imperial College London’s School of Public Health, said: “Declining vaccine uptake is very worrying, as without reversing this trend and achieving sufficient herd immunity the increasing measles outbreaks we have seen over recent years could continue.It is a public health imperative that more children get vaccinated with the recommended two doses of MMR vaccine in order to be protected.”Stephen Kinnock, a health minister, said: “Too many children are starting primary school without complete protection against preventable and potentially serious illnesses like measles, whooping cough and mumps.“Vaccines save thousands of lives every year and prevent countless hospital admissions.
I urge all parents to check their child’s vaccination record and contact their GP practice if any jabs are missing,”
Not monsters, but truly monstrous | Brief letters
All I learned from Nick Clegg’s interview (‘If the people who ran Facebook were monsters, I wouldn’t have worked there’: Nick Clegg on tech bros, Trump and leaving Silicon Valley, 23 August) is (a) his fawning homage to his former boss means that he is keeping his career options open and (b) he still doesn’t get why people despise him for his role in the coalition government. Zuckerberg, Cameron and Osborne may not be monsters, but the real harms they have wrought and their lack of any kind of accountability, responsibility or contrition are truly monstrous.Simon CollinYate, Gloucestershire A letter (22 August) perpetuates the claim that Angela Rayner is bent on selling off allotments for development. It isn’t true, as is clear from a close reading of your 5 August article, which unfortunately had the unhelpful headline “Jeremy Corbyn warns rules on council asset sales threaten allotments”. They don’t, they haven’t been changed, and sales have actually fallen slightly
How to tax the wealthy without a wealth tax | Letters
Faiza Shaheen is misguided in her advocacy of a wealth tax (Rachel Reeves needs to find cash fast. A wealth tax really is her only viable option, 22 August).There are far more practical policies available to tax wealth as part of the progressive narrative. These are based on the idea of taxing the income from wealth rather than taxing wealth directly.This is the approach of Prof Richard Murphy’s Taxing Wealth Report 2024, which estimated a tax yield of £90bn a year from its proposals
Reform UK council removes St George and union flags over safety fears
A Reform-led council has started to remove flags and bunting displaying the St George’s cross and the union flag after concerns were raised that they could cause accidents.Durham county council issued a statement on X on Friday saying that while the council “understand and respect the community’s desire to express national pride, celebration, or remembrance, it is important to ensure such expressions do not compromise public safety”.The council claimed it had been “left with no choice but to remove bunting” after a risk assessment found that “rope involved was so strong that, had a high-sided vehicle driven into it, the poles it was attached to could have been pulled down”.The statement said the council’s “priority remains ensuring the safety and integrity of the highway network, while being mindful of, and responsive to, the communities we serve”. It encouraged residents “to consider safer and more appropriate locations for flags or other displays that do not involve highway infrastructure and conform to all appropriate standards and regulations”
Starmer names former Bank deputy governor as his chief economic adviser
The former Bank of England deputy governor Minouche Shafik is set to join Keir Starmer’s team as chief economic adviser.In a boost to the prime minister’s office in the run-up to the autumn budget, Lady Shafik is expected to take on the role after a year heading a Foreign Office review of the government’s foreign aid spending.A member of the House of Lords, Shafik resigned last year as the president of Columbia University after criticism of the treatment of Jewish students during anti-Israel protests at the institution’s New York campus.Shafik was previously head of the London School of Economics, a deputy governor of the International Monetary Fund and the top civil servant at the now defunct Department for International Development. In 2019 she was touted as a possible contender to replace Mark Carney as the Bank of England’s governor
‘Just hysteria’: UK faces a crisis but the Denis Healey comparison is overblown
International confidence in the UK government’s economic policies had evaporated. Growth was stalling, inflation was galloping, and Labour – back in power after a reckless Conservative administration had gambled on tax cuts – was in deep trouble.It was 1976, when James Callaghan’s government was forced to go cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund for an emergency loan. Fast forward almost half a century and some economists are drawing obvious parallels.Just as Callaghan’s chancellor, Denis Healey, did before her, Rachel Reeves is facing a challenge to placate jittery global investors
Newly elected Scottish Green leaders to campaign on universal income and free bus travel
The new leaders of the Scottish Greens, Ross Greer and Gillian Mackay, have promised to campaign for a universal income, free bus travel and higher taxation on the rich after winning a muted election contest.Greer and Mackay, who were both backbench MSPs at Holyrood, were appointed co-leaders of the Scottish Greens after a noticeably low turnout of 12.7% – only 950 of the party’s 7,500 members voted after a low-key summer campaign.They admitted the turnout was worrying. Greer said he had long believed the party had lost its energy, and significant changes to its structures, internal elections and campaign apparatus were needed
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