Shingles
Shingles, is an acute, painful inflammation of the nerve ganglia, with a skin eruption often forming a girdle around the middle of the body. It is caused by the same virus as chickenpox. Shingles also called Herpes Zoster.
If you had chickenpox as a kid, which most older people have, then the virus can re-activate years later and cause shingles.
The United Kingdom or UK, and many other European countries do not vaccinate for chickenpox so get less shingles. This is because with no vaccine all the children get chicken pox and so the older people are re-exposed to the virus every few years, which is like a booster shot.
#1.- https://thevaccinereaction.org/2016/04/chickenpox-vaccine-may-increase-shingles-risk/?fbclid=IwAR1SP0sGv9NXh6t2pP35SSnwRwSP0brYo16Hxdnlu1mFzt-GxnkZITlO4xk This Explains how chickenpox vaccine is causing shingles down the road for the elderly.
This study2419 shows shingles(HZ) increases in Australia after introduction of chickenpox vaccine.
So perhaps the best thing we can do as older adults if we have had chickenpox as a kid is go hug a kid with chicken pox. Note that the science is still not in on this concept.(Link 3a) In the US and Canada where we now vaccinate for chickenpox, us adults are no longer exposed to the virus booster and sometimes get shingles. Canada and the US started vaccinating around 1995 for chickenpox.
Because of the UK’s policy of not vaccinating for chickenpox, there is about 25 deaths a year in a population of 55 million, and most are in adults. See this link.
#2.-https://www.bmj.com/content/323/7321/1091
So is it worth not vaccinating for chickenpox to prevent shingles? There is much more to this, keep reading.
#2a.http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/18.9.01%20UPDATED%20Fee%20Schedule_1.pdf
Says "A 16-year-old varicella-seronegative resident at a chronic care facility received varicella vaccine; 15 days later he developed severe varicella. Subsequently, a 13-year-old resident and a 39-year-old health care worker developed mild varicella. We demonstrate that vaccine-strain virus was transmitted to both persons".
-https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2806663/ This study is about chickenpox vaccine program in the US. They are basically experimenting on us. Says vaccine is about 80 to 85% effective. They often get break through chickenpox in those vaccinated, some younger people get shingles. They also worried about vaccine pushing the disease onto older people where it is more dangerous. They still do not know is vaccine is causing shingles on some, mixed results from studies(in conclusion of study).
-This8421 study says young kid got shingles after chickenpox vaccine, and then investigated several other cases of this. This 2020 study 2562 is another kid who got shingles after the chickenpox vaccine.
-This study From BC medical journal in 2014 also says chicken pox vaccine can rarely cause shingles. Read study, does not seem to be that rare.
-This from the CDC, says those vaccinated with the vaccine can spread chickenpox to others, though rarely.
-This 2020 UK study says exposure to Chickenpox or Varicella lessens the chance of Shingles or zoster by 33%. Same here from BMJ, full study.
This says parents of children with chickenpox, less likely to get shingles.
#3.-https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/304093.php?sr=&utm_source=TrendMD&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Medical_News_Today_TrendMD_1 This says Getting shingles causes a 2.4 fold increase in strokes and a 1.7 times higher chance of a MI or myocardial infarction. This does not say how many of those strokes or MI’s result in death. (Link 14 as well)
Would there be more deaths from shingles than there would be from chicken pox?
About 1 in 3 people will get shingles in the US over their life time, or about 1 million people a year.(Link 14a if this is good data) The US used to have about 100 to 150 deaths a year from chickenpox.(Link 14a) So is there more deaths from shingles than chickenpox??
Note that things are not quite as simple as I am making out. There is still no definitive science on all this. And there is still shingles in countries that dont vaccinate for chickenpox. As usual with all this we have "industry science" and independent science all confusing things.
They are finding now that some kids, especially the immunocompromised who get the chickenpox vaccine are getting zoster or shingles while still young.
#3a.-https://cmr.asm.org/content/23/1/202.full Lots here on the vaccines and shingles.
#4.-https://www.bbc.com/news/health-22335512 This says about 3 in 1000 get shingles in Britain every year.
#4a.-https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/154912.php This says 1 in 3 people in the US will get shingles in their lifetime, or about one million people a year.
Or we can go with the US’s policy, which is first give every kid a chickenpox vaccine, then when there old, give every adult a shingles vaccine. A good business model for pharma. And ignores all the risk from the vaccines.
But lets not forget that both these vaccines have side effect and rarely, serious ones. Also the older shingles vaccine is only 51% effective and wears off after 5 to 8 years. The new Shingrix vaccine they now say is 85% effective(down from 91%), but still no good data yet to say for sure, and they don’t yet know how long it lasts.
This one has more side effects than the old vaccine.(Links below)
We also have to keep in mind that the chickenpox vaccine now costs $90 to $120 and the shingles vaccine is over a $100 as well and cost only $3 to $4 to produce, massive profits, which means all the science and data out there has to be triple checked.(and it's not)
#4b.-http://vk.ovg.ox.ac.uk/shingles Says about 50 people a year die from shingles in the UK. And 25 die from chickenpox in the UK.(Link 2) So if the UK started to vaccinate for chickenpox, that 25 would drop to 1 or 2 deaths and the 50 deaths from shingles, how much would it go up??
This is the latest on the new Shingix shingles vaccine.
#5.-https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181025141038.htm This Oct 2018 study is a Systemic Review of clinical studies done on the new shingles vaccine, Shingrix. Says Shingrix was 85% more effective in reducing cases of shingles.
Also says it carried a greater risk of side-effects. Says there has been no head to head studies comparing the two vaccines. Also see link #15 below for more.
-There is now two vaccines for shingles. The old one from Merck is the Zostavax and is said to be 51% effective and wears off after 5 to 8 years and less effective the older your are. This one is a “live vaccine”.
The new vaccine from GSK is called Shingrix and they initially said it was 91% effective, but a new meta analysis says it is 85%,(link above) but the real data is still out. And they do not know how long it lasts, they say they think it lasts longer than old one.
This vaccine is not live, but uses a new adjuvant that has never been used before.
There is now a number of class action lawsuits agains Zostavax for causing serious side effects.
#6.-https://www.law.com/thelegalintelligencer/2018/08/02/mdl-panel-sends-shingles-vaccine-lawsuits-to-pennsylvania/?slreturn=20180702225700 Over 5000 zostavax shingles lawsuits going to court now.
Vaccine causes shingles, brain damage and death among other things.
More shingles studies and articles:
#7-https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/shingles-can-strike-twice-will-the-shingles-vaccine-help-201103021531 Risk of shingles after first attack is about 5% over 8 years. (though may be higher if first attack lasted longer than 2 months.) About 10% can have long term pain.
#8 -https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X12007761 Here is an interesting look at the whole chickenpox vaccine issue. Studies on chicken pox vaccine and shingles and how the CDC is mis-leading us.
#9.-https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2563790/ chicken pox vaccine and shingles in the UK. Says “chicken pox is a routine childhood illness.” Then Says “UK does not vaccinate because childhood vaccination might drive up the age at which those who are nominee get the illness(chicken pox more severe in older people) and also because the incidence of shingles may increase.
#10.
https://www.fda.gov/downloads/AdvisoryCommittees/CommitteesMeetingMaterials/BloodVaccinesandOtherBiologics/VaccinesandRelatedBiologicalProductsAdvisoryCommittee/UCM575190.pdf This is the FDA briefing document on Shingrix.
#11.- https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/895228 Here is a short video on the vaccine, again by Dr. Dooling, is she doing a Shingrix commercial for GSK?. Says not to do strenuous activity for several days after getting vaccine. (This is getting scary)
#12.-https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/a-new-shingles-vaccine-prepare-for-harsher-side-effects/ar-AAyHeve Shingrix vaccine harsh side effects.
-says all the studies now are “Industry funded”,although other research “may” be ongoing.
-Article says nothing about a vaccine shortage.
#13.-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTDqY8WM-dk good video on both Shingrix and old vaccine. Says has serious side effects.
#14.-https://www.nbcnews.com/health/aging/shingles-isn-t-just-nasty-it-could-kill-you-too-n480571 This says shingles can kill you also. Says 2.4 fold increase in strokes and heart issues from heart problems when people get shingles. Are more dying from shingles than died from chickenpox? Link #3 has more on this.
#15.-https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k4029 This link shows the full study on the new Shingrix vaccine. So made some notes, because it may disappear behind a pay wall shortly. This is same study as above, but with some more info. This surprised me, says “Network meta-analysis of five randomized controlled trials found no statistically significant differences between the live attenuated vaccine and placebo for incidence of laboratory confirmed herpes zoster. The adjuvant recombinant subunit vaccine, however, was statistically superior to both the live attenuated vaccine (vaccine efficacy 85%)
So is this saying they found that the old live Zostavax shingles vaccine did not work all?? They use to say it was 51% effective.
I notice also that this new study says Shingrix is 85% effective, where as the original manufacture data said it was 91% effective.
Further down this study under “Risk of bias results” says “21 of the 22 studies had a high risk of ‘other’ biases, since most of the studies were funded by private industry, and the coauthors included employees from the vaccine manufacturers. The studies also a number of other risks of biases. (So this whole systemic review could be useless if it is using biased data.) Read this. So is all this just more “tobacco science”?
In the “Discussion” section says “the results suggest the new vaccine is superior to the old one”. Then says “owing to the lack of data, the superiority of the new one over the old vaccine in reducing the number of cases of shingles is Inconclusive”. There was withdrawals from the study because of serious adverse events, but they don’t say how many, at least in language I can understand. Then Read the "Responses" tab.
Also see link #5 above for more.
-This next study is a the latest, 2019, study on Shingrix, they use VAERS. Says 3% are serious adverse events, but not tell anyone that there is 99% under-reporting to VAERS.
This the study here
-This 2020 study is a case report of someone getting shingles after the new vaccine. they did have other health issues before the vaccine.
-This says immunocompromised person got shingles and menningits vaccine strain.
-This study5263, says 15% of those that got the Zostavax vaccine had a non injections site adverse event, is new study.
-This court document is a class action law suit against Merck's Zostavax, is 1 of 8 people say the vaccine gave them shingles. This document says Merck was negligent in many ways, poor clinical trials etc.
-This1255 says a person with colitis got a blisterting autoimmune skin reaction from Shingrix.
-This from the FDA mar 2021 says is increased risk of GBS 3 to 6 in a million from vaccine.
-This BMJ study says Britian has less shingles because they dont vax for chickenpox, and if re-exposed to chickden-pox, 30% less likely to get shingles.
————————