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Have a vax-related story for y'all.

I'm not jabbed, but after a hugely stressful event about 10 days ago, I developed shingles. The blisters came out yesterday, so today I was at urgent care.

The nurse that checked me in had a new trainee with her. She told her to keep back and not touch me, as she had "had the vaccine." That piqued my curiosity, so I asked, "What vaccine?"

"The chickenpox vaccine. We've been getting tons of cases of twenty-year-olds with shingles in lately."

Me: "Because of the chickenpox vaccine?"

Her: "Yeah. We think it's because they had the vaccine when they were kids and it's wearing off now."

Me (harrumphing in my head): "So they're catching chickenpox or shingles?"

Her: "They're coming in with shingles. We don't usually see 20-year-olds with shingles."

Me: "So they vaccinated for chickenpox and instead are getting shingles."

Her: "Yeah."

Me: "How long has that been happening?"

Her: "We started seeing it last year."

Me: "Interesting."

When did the chickenpox vaccine come out?

Healthcare providers started giving the chickenpox vaccine in 1995. Chickenpox used to be a very common childhood disease. Before the chickenpox vaccine became available, about 4 million people got chickenpox each year. Between 10,500 and 13,000 people were hospitalized, and 100 to 150 people died each year from chickenpox.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/22136
-chickenpox-vaccine

1995 - 17 years ago. Hmm. And all of sudden people in their 20’s are getting shingles? Now? Not five years ago?

Did your average 25 year old get the chicken pox vaccine in 1995 when they were 8? Or had they already had chicken pox by then?

As an RN, I took care of a patient that developed an itchy rash during his stay. It was determined to be shingles. I had chicken pox as a kid but wasn’t too worried. The day nurse however was a young girl, about 8 weeks pregnant. A few weeks later she suffered a miscarriage.
A few years later, I was caring for a patient known to have shingles.I expressed my concern to the charge nurse making the assignment for the day shift to be sure to avoid giving this patient to any nurse that might be pregnant. She rolled her eyes and assigned a sweet young girl that has just discovered she was expecting.a few weeks later, the miscarriage occurred. My heart was broken.

A year later that nurse was blessed with a beautiful baby. She did not return to work and became a wonderful mom.

I got shingles, too, in late August. Didn’t know what it was at first, and thought I’d been bitten by ants on the patio (but why didn’t I notice when it was happening?) Finally when the rash started swelling painfully, I did an internet search on “types of rashes people get”. There are so many! I scrolled through all the pictures and descriptions, going “nope...nope...” until I reched Shingles, and said “That’s IT!”

I never expected to get it, and was not under particular stress. My husband had it years back, and it was mild. Of course we had both had chicken pox as young kids. I started taking Lysine and avoided consuming certain foods in excess (like nuts, which I love). And sent an e-mail to my Homeopath telling her what happened, and she emailed back saying I should take a dose of my remedy - the one that helped me so much with my allergies and my breathing earlier in the year. I thought she might have some ideas for something specific for the shingles, but that one remedy is supposed to straighten out or minimize most of what might ail me.

So the worst part lasted about a week. The redness took longer to go away after the blisters drained and the pain had subsided, and to this day if I look hard in the mirror I can see a very faint pink mark where it manifested (it was only a small area on my right upper back).

Then I heard from another unjabbed friend my age who I hadn’t talked to in eons, and she’d had shingles too this year! It was mild for her as well.

The lack of exposure to chicken pox these past few decades is probably what has led to the large increase in people coming down with shingles. I read that if people who have had chicken pox as kids are re-exposed to it occasionally, they are unlikely to develop shingles.

If the vaccine against chicken pox is leading to shingles a couple of decades later, rather than many decades later, maybe it’s the same process. It just happens more quickly. Presumably, that’s due to a minimized immune response compared to actually contracting the disease, as should be expected with a traditional vaccine.