‘Give children chickenpox jabs to beat anti-vaxxers’

Minister appeals to parents as NHS readies free vaccine

- REBECCA WHITTAKER

Conspiracy theorists who spread misinformation must be defeated, a health minister said, as he urged parents to take up the new chickenpox jab.

The vaccine, which currently costs around £150 at private clinics and pharmacies, will be rolled out for free on the NHS in England from January. It will form part of a new combined immunisation on the childhood vaccination programme, and ministers hope it will protect some youngsters from severe complications from the virus.

Health minister Stephen Kinnock argued it is “common sense” for parents to vaccinate their children, amid what he described as a rise in “vaccine hesitancy” following the Covid pandemic.

New data reveals none of the main childhood vaccines in England reached the 95 per cent uptake target in 2024/25. Some 91.9 per cent of five-year-olds received one dose of the MMR vaccine, unchanged from 2023/24 and still the lowest level since 2010/11, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

Just 83.7 per cent of five-year-olds had received both MMR doses, down year-on-year from 83.9 per cent and the lowest level since 2009/10. Uptake of the first MMR dose at 24 months stood at 88.9 per cent in 2024/25 - unchanged on the previous year, but again the lowest figure since 2009/10.

Speaking to LBC, Mr Kinnock said: “There’s been a 10-year trend in declining take-up of vaccines, and I think obviously the vaccine hesitancy that came after the pandemic has definitely not helped. These conspiracy theorists, who are peddling this nonsense and rubbish, we've got to take them on, we've got to defeat them in our arguments and drown out the noise that they're making.”