Free Republic

The list of potential benefits of the shingles vaccine continues to grow. Beyond protecting against the viral infection and resulting painful rash, the shot has also been linked to a reduced risk of dementia, as Fox News Digital previously reported. And now, a new study has found that the vaccine could lower the risk of heart disease for up to eight years. DEMENTIA RISK COULD DIP WITH COMMON VACCINE, STUDY SUGGESTS In the long-running study, researchers analyzed up to 12 years of data for more than 1.2 million people aged 50 or older in South Korea, focusing on shingles vaccination...

Harrison Ford reportedly stepped down as a presenter at the 2025 Oscars after he was diagnosed with shingles. The “Indiana Jones” star received his diagnosis on Friday and dropped out of the awards show on Saturday morning, according to Entertainment Weekly. Per the outlet, he has been resting and is doing OK. Harrison Ford reportedly stepped down as a presenter at the 2025 Oscars after he was diagnosed with shingles. The “Indiana Jones” star received his diagnosis on Friday and dropped out of the awards show on Saturday morning, according to Entertainment Weekly. Per the outlet, he has been resting...

Long-term, low-dose antiviral treatment reduces the risk for potentially vision-damaging bouts of inflammation and infection, as well as pain, which occur when shingles affects the eye, according to research. Shingles occurs when the varicella-zoster virus, which causes chickenpox in children, lies dormant for decades in nerve cells and then starts multiplying again for reasons unknown. In about 8% of new shingles cases each year, the virus awakens in the nerve that supplies the forehead and eye, a condition called herpes zoster ophthalmicus, or HZO. Shingles causes keratitis when it affects the cornea, and iritis when inside the eye, with both...

Hello Freepers that live in Hurricane areas. I live in the Midwest and we've experienced high winds this year to the point where I had some ridge shingles taken off. Assuming I'll have to replace my roof in the near future, looking for recommendations on what folks use if they're in the hurricane areas as you sustain high winds for prolonged periods of times. I live in a neighborhood where we can't use shake/fake shake type of roofing material. Maybe metal with an asphalt look to it but for the most part, everyone has to use the architectural asphalt shingles.

A study of more than 200,000 people by researchers found at least a 17% reduction in dementia diagnoses in the six years after the new recombinant shingles vaccination, equating to 164 or more additional days lived without dementia. The benefit was seen in both sexes but was greater in women, and the findings suggest that the recombinant shingles vaccine may have additional value in terms of protection against dementia. Shingles is a painful and serious condition afflicting many elderly people. It is caused by the Herpes zoster virus that can flare up in people who previously had chicken pox. After...

DEAR DR. ROACH: I am 70. I got my shingles vaccination in 2018. I took two doses of the Shingrix vaccine. I was invited to dinner at someone’s house where someone just got shingles. Am I still protected? -- S.C. ANSWER: About 99% of North Americans are immune to the varicella-zoster virus that causes chicken pox and shingles, either because they had it as a child or because they got the vaccine. Exposure to the virus, whether it was due to chicken pox or shingles, can cause chicken pox in a person who does not have immunity.

Wednesday, GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) revealed data from the ZOSTER-049 long-term follow-up phase 3 trial, which followed participants for up to approximately 11 years following initial vaccination with Shingrix (Recombinant Zoster Vaccine or RZV). The final trial data demonstrate that RZV has maintained efficacy against shingles in adults over 50 for over a decade. ZOSTER-049 included over 7,000 participants. The results from ZOSTER-049, an extension from two phase 3 clinical trials in adults aged 50 and over (ZOE-50 and ZOE-70), include: 79.7% vaccine efficacy (VE) in adults aged ≥50 cumulatively from year six to year 11 after vaccination. 82.0% VE in...

Calling for governments to enact a "global moratorium" on COVID-19 mRNA vaccines could have been a death sentence for a scientist's career not long ago. Now it opens the door to a prestigious science publisher. The Springer Nature medical journal Cureus, sibling to Nature and Scientific American, published a peer-reviewed paper by high-profile mRNA vaccine critics last month, showing the growing mainstream openness to data and arguments once nitpicked if not ignored by publishers and suppressed by academia and Big Tech. The feds have struggled to keep interest high in each new formulation of the COVID vaccines, with fewer than...

The continued — an increasingly curious — absence of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) from her duties in the upper chamber of Congress is becoming a growing thorn in the sides of the Democrats. Feinstein is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and her prolonged recovery from shingles has ground to a halt the Democrats’ ability to further pollute the judicial system with activist judges who have been nominated by Joe Biden’s puppeteers. Over the weekend, Matt wrote a VIP column about Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) asserting that the Republicans on the committee not let Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer...

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein is receiving treatment for shingles in a California hospital, Fox News Digital has confirmed. "I was diagnosed over the February recess with a case of shingles. I have been hospitalized and am receiving treatment in San Francisco." Feinstein's office shared. "I hope to return to the Senate later this month."

Mis- and disinformation have been prevalent throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, but in recent months anti-vax activists and conspiracy theorists have latched on to a new phrase to help their cause: “died suddenly.” Anti-vaxxers hoping to convince people that COVID vaccines are linked to sudden deaths among younger people have invoked the term while trying to exploit tragic events like the death of soccer journalist Grant Wahl, or Damar Hamlin suffering a cardiac arrest during an NFL game. Though that theory has no scientific evidence to support it, the “died suddenly” rhetoric has gained a lot of traction on social media....

A study demonstrated that shingles, also known as herpes zoster, is associated with an almost 30% higher long-term risk of a major cardiovascular event such a stroke or heart attack. "Our findings suggest there are long-term implications of shingles and highlight the importance of prevention," said Sharon Curhan, MD, ScM. Approximately 1 in 3 individuals will develop shingles in their lifetime, with more cases projected as the population ages and more people have compromised immunity due to disease or medication use. The most common complication from shingles is postherpetic neuralgia. This condition affects nerve fibers and skin, causing burning pain...

Scientists investigating why people who have had shingles are at a higher risk of stroke, now believe the answer lies within lipid vesicles called exosomes that shuttle proteins and genetic information between cells, according to new research. "Most people know about the painful rash associated with shingles, but they may not know that the risk of stroke is elevated for a year after infection," said Andrew Bubak, Ph.D. Researchers have found that shingles can also increase the risk of stroke especially for those under age 40 where the shingles vaccine is not typically recommended. The risk is greatest in people...

Got a Shingles vaccine today. 2 dose vaccine, 2-6 months apart. Recommended for ages 50+

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was aware early on that the COVID vaccines could spur viral reactivation of diseases like the varicella-zoster virus (shingles) in some people, but chose not to disclose it, according to renowned vaccinologist and physician Dr. Robert Malone. “They knew about the viral reactivation,” Malone declared during a recent panel discussion hosted by Del Bigtree with fellow Global COVID Summit physicians Dr. Ryan Cole, and Dr. Richard Urso. Malone, the original inventor of mRNA and DNA vaccination technology, explained that he had been “very actively engaged” with senior personnel at the FDA in the Office...

Herpes zoster reactivation -- a.k.a. shingles -- following COVID-19 vaccination in six patients with comorbid autoimmune/inflammatory diseases may be a new adverse event associated with the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine, suggested a new report. At two centers in Israel, there have been six cases of herpes zoster developing shortly after administration of the Pfizer vaccine in patients with disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis since December 2020, according to Victoria Furer, MD, of Tel Aviv University, and colleagues. Little has been known about the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines among patients with rheumatic diseases, because immunosuppressed individuals were not included...

Treatment with arginine, one of the amino-acid building blocks of proteins, enhanced the effectiveness of radiation therapy in cancer patients with brain metastases. The study reported arginine, which can be delivered in oral form, prior to standard radiation therapy in 31 patients who had brain metastases. Nearly 78 percent had a complete or partial response in their brain tumors over the follow-up period of up to four years, while only 22 percent of the 32 patients who received a placebo prior to radiotherapy had such a response. The trial was designed to gauge the effectiveness of arginine as a "radiosensitizer"...

Experts in Israel found that patients with certain autoimmune diseases who received the Pfizer/BioNTech jab were more likely to develop the rash than those without the condition. Side effects can occur with any medication, including vaccines. They are always listed on the product information leaflet which comes with the medication. Most people who have a Covid jab won’t suffer any side effects but for those who have experienced them, the most common include pain at the site of injection and fatigue. Medics at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and Carmel Medical Center in Haifa found that shingles was five...

Herpes infections may be a side effect of a COVID-19 vaccine, experts have revealed. Scientists in Israel identified six cases in a new study of patients developing a skin rash known as herpes zoster — or shingles — after receiving the Pfizer vaccine, according to a study in the Rheumatology journal. Herpes zoster starts off as a small, itchy skin rash, but if left untreated, it could cause nerve damage and pain, the Jerusalem Post reported. This can include a prolonged burning sensation on the skin even after the rash disappears.

I got my flu shot, I got my pneumonia shot, I'll get that shingles shot one of these days....