@Nrdsb4 is right (hi Nrdsb4! I was in the midwest and just got back today!).
cpox vaccine confers immunity to cpox (aka duh lol)
cpox vaccine appears to confer immunity to shingles also, that is, people who were vaccinated have lesser incidence of shingle
the generation of people who got cpox vaccine (those who were vaccinated starting around 1994ish) will be the first to grow old vaccinated, so it will be interesting to see if they need the shingles vaccine. Logic/hope says no, but I suspect it will still be recommended.
shingles is not contracted from family members (it isn’t infectious per se). It’s a reactivation of cpox (varicella) virus which was dormant in the nerve root after natural (ie ‘wild type’) cpox infection. You can’t get shingles from a person, though you can get cpox from a person with shingles (aka Nrdsb4 is right, again).
So we don’t know the long range effect of the CP vaccine. In addition, I had no idea the shingles vaccine was only valid for 6 years. Will insurance pay to be re-vaccinated every 6 years?
If it doesn’t, I think it would be worth thinking about re-vaccinating because shingles are MISERABLE. Costco at just under $200 was the lowest price I could find, since I paid out-of-pocket. I hope they find shingles vaccine confers longer than 6 years of immunity or reduced susceptibility.
That quote didn’t say it only lasts 6 six years, it says “at least 6 years,” with research ongoing to see if it lasts longer.
I’ve had shingles. It would be worth $200 to get vaccinated even at 6 year intervals. I’m betting the research shows the protection lasts longer though.
I’ve been putting off getting the shingles vaccine. No real reason other than it’s just been on the bottom of the to-do list.
That’s changed. Just ran into someone I hadn’t seen in 20 years. He had shingles in his eyes. Took several doctors to figure out why he could see reasonably well when he awoke but couldn’t read the big 'E" on the eye chart by noon. He was told he’d be most likely be blind in two months but there was on more ‘hail Mary’ treatment he could try.
He underwent a series of 10 shots directly into the eyes. It seems to have arrested the process.
So…next time I’m at Costco.
Does anyone know if insurance still requires you to be 60 before extending coverage? I’m not quite there yet.
Regarding shingles vaccine, GSK has submitted its new vaccine Shingrix for FDA approval. GSK claims that Shingrix is more effective than Merck Zostavax in clinical trials.
@dietz199 How awful for your friend. It depends on your insurance and your health history, so you should call first or decide if you want to pay for it yourself. I’m 56 and insurance (Blue Cross PPO) covered mine. But I have a history of a couple of awful shingles attacks, so that may have been why. I am SO grateful this is available now. People who think it’s no big deal to get chicken pox have absolutely no understanding of the pain of shingles.
There is a meme floating around Facebook. It is a picture of an iron lung with a sign on it that says, “This is an iron lung. Don’t bring it back. Vaccinate your kids!” A friend from high school, with whom I am Facebook friends, commented, “Pretty sure that’s not coming back. We do have modern medical care.”
Would it be bad of me to reply, “Yes. And ‘modern medical care’ includes vaccinations!”?
@gclsports You can try, but most won’t listen. There are too many sites and FB groups that just plain lie or are based on conspiracy theories, etc. and there’s no understanding of basic scientific facts. They’ll tell you in all seriousness that vaccines are what actually caused polio, and that the reason children aren’t dying anymore from childhood illnesses is because of better hygiene. And the sad thing is that there are so many people out there who are willing to spin these lies for profit, selling their own alternative products, etc., that they often drown out reason. It’s really frightening…
People really are scary when they don’t think and believe they should just have their beloved kids take their chances. It sounds like child abuse and neglect to me.
I haven’t read the actual ruling (and probably won’t) so I welcome anyone telling me that CNN is being over-dramatic in its depiction of this. I really, really hope that’s the case.
Gee I wonder if I was in Europe, if I could sue my university for causing my lupus. After all, no family history of it and it began in my first semester of grad school. Therefore, logically, my university caused my lupus.
I feel like we are in danger of going back into a “dark ages” era, not just as it relates to science, but to other things associated with social/cultural/humanity issues. It’s truly disheartening.
Reminds me of the furor about silicone breast implants. Some of the people who got them developed autoimmune diseases. They were able to sue the manufacturer for damages, winning cases even after it was demonstrated that the incidence of autoimmune disease in recipients was the same as in the general population. Dow stopped selling the implants for years as a result. (Of course there are other problems with implants but the idea that you could win a court case based on a theory that was solidly disproved by science amazed me.) Oh, and the only human Lyme vaccine was also pulled off the market after people started suing based on a theory with no evidence.
One of my FB friends yesterday posted a rant about Gardasil, the HPV vaccine. She posted an anecdote about how a young woman had the vaccine and shortly after developed horrible symptoms, so it just had to be the fault of the vaccination! One other mutual friend and I posted that the vaccine is critical since it protects women from cervical cancer. The disheartening thing was reading all the posts from other people expressing distrust of the vaccine. Sigh.
I saw a meme once…can’t remember it exactly. But the gist was: A photo of a lion, and the caption read “snowflake in the face of “dangerous” vaccines, yet a lion in the face of influenza, measles, etc.” In other words vaccines are so dangerous, but their little snowflakes will be superhuman if stricken with “minor childhood diseases.” So completely illogical.
