Shingles risk with COVID vaccine

[Winenot]

Has anyone here experienced (or do you know someone) an outbreak of shingles after receiving the COVID vaccine?

My husband received his first Moderna vaccine in late March and his second shot on Thursday, April 15th. On April 14th, he had an earache, but didn't think much about it. By this past Saturday, a rash appeared on his forehead and he had some tingling. He also didn't think much of it because he has Rosacea so he applied a good dose of ointment and went about the day. By Monday, he had a headache and his eyelid was swollen on top of a worsened rash. At this point, he suspected shingles. He went to the clinic and the Ophthalmologist, was officially diagnosed and was prescribed meds that are supposed to minimize the nerve pain. A discussion with the county health officer revealed that shingles is a possible side effect of the COVID vaccine and that people with auto immune disease or inflammatory disease are at higher risk of developing it, although it can flare up in anyone. Rosacea is an inflammatory skin condition and likely placed him in a higher risk category. He is 56 years old and has not had the shingles vaccine (his doctor has not even recommended it yet).

According to the county health officer, shingles is a KNOWN side effect associated with the COVID vaccine, although it is fairly new. However, she also said that currently, and surprisingly, the risk of shingles is not mentioned in any CDC fact sheets associated with the vaccine. We are both, understandably, very upset with this development. Especially knowing now that he likely had a risk condition and was not informed prior to accepting the vaccine. Had we known, he probably would have taken the shingles vaccine series before being vaccinated for COVID. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

 

[harllee]

I am so sorry this has happened to your husband. I have not heard of Shingles as a side effect of Covid vaccine but I have had Shingles myself 3 times so I know a lot (too much about it). My DH has also had Shingles twice and he has an autoimmune disease so he was more likely to have Shingles. We both had the old Shingles vaccine but it did not help us--we still had Shingles outbreaks. Once the new Shingrix vaccine came out we got that and neither of us has had Shingles since. It is good your DH is seeing an eye doctor as Shingles in the eye can be very serious. As soon as he is able your DH should get the Shingrix vaccine since a person can get Shingles over and over. In my opinion everyone over 50 should get the Shingrix vaccine.

 

[audreyh1]

Hadn’t heard a COVID vaccine causing a shingles outbreak. News to me!

Fortunately DH and I were vaccinated for shingles two years ago.

 

[RAE]

Very sorry to hear that this happened to your husband. I just did a quick search, and the information about shingles being a potential side effect is quite new, as your husband's doctor said:

https://whdh.com/news/study-shingles-may-be-side-effect-of-covid-19-vaccine/

This does highlight a concern I have with the COVID vaccines - they have simply not been out long enough to possibly know what all the potential side effects could or will be. I understand that there was an urgent need to get the vaccines out (under an emergency use authorization), and there's no doubt the vaccine has already saved many lives, but since the vaccine has only been used for a few months now, there will almost certainly be new side effects that we haven't heard about yet. Hopefully most of those side effects will be minor. My wife has autoimmune issues, and she is (understandably) reluctant to get the vaccine at this time. Neither of us are "anti-vax" people, as we generally believe in vaccines, but the short time period that these new vaccines have been out, combined with the new mRNA technology, does create some concern for both of us.

 

[audreyh1]

I have some autoimmune issues - generally moderate and not requiring medication, but there. I was seriously concerned about my immune system going into overdrive (overreacting) to a COVID-19 infection, so I was quite anxious to get the vaccine.

With over 100 million US folks vaccinated in over 3 months before my chance, I was really not concerned about the vaccine.

Listening to virologist Paul Offit’s long interview with Peter Attia where he explained in detail how the different vaccines worked and their history made me feel very good about the mRNA technology. And of course the terrific real world results that started coming out just before my first dose made me feel really good about it.

I had my second dose yesterday, but considering that I had full ShingRX vaccine in 2019, I’m not concerned.

 

[Lakedog]

When I had my first Pfizer shot yesterday at Walgreens, the form I filled out prior asked if/when you had the shingles vaccine so I wondered if shingles might be a side effect.

 

[Aerides]

Yup it's a thing. A rare thing, but a thing. My Dad had shingles about 15 years ago, never got Shingrex after (only about 10% of people get it a 2nd time), and joined the club 3 days after Moderna shot #2. He got on meds right away, but still took a few weeks to get under control, and 2 months to completely go away. They had shot #2 in february, but their PCP said it must have just been a coincidence. Googling at the time I found really nothing.

It's a miserable disease, but even my Dad agreed he'd take 2 months of shingles to avoid Covid.

ETA: you can't/don't get shingrex as a side effect of the vaccine per se, it's just one of our bodies immune system flare up things. I think they ask about it when jabbing more because you need to have proper spacing with vaccines.

 

[harllee]

DH has an autoimmune disease and his doctor advised him to get the Covid vaccine as soon as he was able (got first dose in Feb). His doctor said DH was high risk to catch Covid and be very ill. Doctor said DH's best hope was the vaccine.

DH's Doctor also advised him to get the Shingrix vaccine (he got Shingrix shot as soon as it was available a few years ago) since he was high risk for Shingles.

I think any GP who is not advising his or her patients over ago 50 to get the Shingrix vaccine is not doing his or her job.

 

[braumeister]

Shingles is truly horrible, as many here can attest (including me). So I always recommend the Shingrx vaccine very strongly.

When I went for my second Moderna jab, I was asked if I had had ANY other vaccine in the past couple of weeks, so apparently there are other related side effects as well.

 

[audreyh1]

Shingles is truly horrible, as many here can attest (including me). So I always recommend the Shingrx vaccine very strongly.

When I went for my second Moderna jab, I was asked if I had had ANY other vaccine in the past couple of weeks, so apparently there are other related side effects as well.

They definitely don’t want you to have had a very recent vaccination for anything else.

 

[Aerides]

When I went for my second Moderna jab, I was asked if I had had ANY other vaccine in the past couple of weeks, so apparently there are other related side effects as well.

I think the reasoning between spacing vaccines is less to do with side-effects than efficacy. If your immune system is all busy dealing with the Shingrex jab, and then you give it a Covid one, it might not handle both to full effect and cry uncle.

 

[audreyh1]

I think the reasoning between spacing vaccines is less to do with side-effects than efficacy. If your immune system is all busy dealing with the Shingrex jab, and then you give it a Covid one, it might not handle both to full effect and cry uncle.

Right, that was my impression.

 

[Freedom56]

There were some recent reports of herpes zoster and the Covid-19 vaccine.

https://nypost.com/2021/04/20/herpes-infection-possibly-linked-to-covid-19-vaccine/

https://www.wtrf.com/health-and-fit...may-be-a-side-effect-of-the-covid-19-vaccine/

 

[Aerides]

There were some recent reports of herpes zoster and the Covid-19 vaccine.

To be more specific...there were recent reports of Shingles connection, written with headlines and terminology designed to scare people and sensationalize a story.

Sure, technically Shingles is called herpes zoster, but literally no one would say "oops looks like you got a case of herpes zoster" because it's Shingles. It's not herpes. At best you'd say Shingles, aka as, but framing it as those articles did was just to get more people to share...

 

[Blueskies123]

Just because B follows A does not mean A caused B.





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_hoc_ergo_propter_hoc

 

[6miths]

And all three articles are reporting the same 6 patient case series from Israel.

So next we'll see a case series report on the approximately 10,000 people in the US who have died in automobile accidents after being vaccinated and be convinced that the vaccine is the cause.

What is the background rate of shingles in a matched population with auto-immune diseases? The people reporting the association are appropriately noting that it is not a cause and effect relationship based on their observations. The 'reporters' have a different agenda. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't but one can also possibly think that having an auto-immune disease and getting Covid might not be great either?

 

[6miths]

When I went for my second Moderna jab, I was asked if I had had ANY other vaccine in the past couple of weeks, so apparently there are other related side effects as well.

I think the reasoning between spacing vaccines is less to do with side-effects than efficacy. If your immune system is all busy dealing with the Shingrex jab, and then you give it a Covid one, it might not handle both to full effect and cry uncle.

Or they might just be being responsible and collecting data so that potential positive and negative associations can be identified and further studied.

Many vaccines are given together and potentially amplify one another. Some of the immune machinery is co-operative so waking it up helps in the response to a second or third vaccine. Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) are given together. Diphtheria-Pertussis-Tetanus (DPT or now DTaP) are frequently given together. Polio and Hep B vaccines have been combined with the DTaP vaccine at the same time and Varicella (Chicken pox/shingles) has been combined with MMR. Vaccines against HPV include antigens for many different sub-types. There are many combinations either as single or multiple shots. People going into the Armed Forces or international travelers to far flung place have real world experience with feeling like pin cushions. Even in single agent vaccines substances were added to help 'activate' the immune system to improve efficacy.

 

[rrppve]

I’m sorry this happened. Shingles is no fun, but Covid is far worse potentially. The long term effects of Covid are also not well understood and appear to be far more reaching than vaccine side effects.
I think you did the right thing by getting the Covid vaccine. It would have been a mistake IMHO to have delayed getting the Covid vaccine until he had completed the Shingrex series. Others opinions may vary, but I do think the relative risks need to be weighed.

 

[jim584672]

Good thing I finished my Shingrix shots a month before the Moderna.

 

[JoeWras]

Those latent herpes viruses can reactivate with any stress or trauma. DW got shingles twice. Once after a minor bicycle accident, another time after Kilocorp kept calling her with emergency problems at 3AM. She's 5 days past shot #2 and so far, so good with regard to shingles.

I know how to reactivate my cold sores, another in the herpes family. Usually trauma to my lips, especially sunburn. I'm actually happy that the vaccine didn't reactivate them, and I bet you some people are get a cold sore outbreak after the vaccine.

 

[Aerides]

Those latent herpes viruses can reactivate with any stress or trauma.

When my Dad's shingles reappeared after his moderna shot, I did theorize that perhaps it was a sort of stress event: that finally getting fully vaccinated after being concerned for himself, as well as Mum and everyone else, the act of releasing that stress might itself have been a trigger (if viruses are triggered when stress is flared, might not they also trigger when it shoots back down?) He's very much one to suppress and not express, and he was probably the most cautious one in my immediately family (and the oldest). So I theorize he was at defcon4 stress for months and then went to defcon1 in a weekend.

But even his doc was like "unlucky coincidence" and that was that. You could probably find a dozen people who had name-any-medical-anomoly-here after any shot when you give out hundreds of millions in a few months...

 

[ivinsfan]

Hold on a second OP, you are saying the earache came one day before the second shot? So you want to blame the shingles on the shot he got 4 weeks earlier?


You and your "county health officer" need to calm down a little. Search the word shingles and you'd be shocked at how many of us have had shingles. It happens and your DH could have had a shingles shot at 50...

 

[Dalmore]

It looks like links between Covid-19 (the disease, not vaccine) and shingles has been known for some time. Shingles emerges when the body is stressed.

This article is from early December 2020
https://www.drugtopics.com/view/covid-19-and-herpes-zoster-co-infections-identified

 

[harllee]

I have preached this on this forum and I will preach it again---GET THE SHINGRIX VACCINE!
Any doctor that is not recommending the Shingrix vaccine to people over 50 is just not doing a good job

 

[ivinsfan]

On stress and shingles

That's what they say, but I'm not certain that's true. Personally I think shingles is just gonna shingle...


summer of 18..DH has surgery that almost turns fatal months of rehab and stress for both of us..


Summer of 19 have a wonderful week away at a lake resort with kids and GK's two days after we get home DH has shingles rash.



He was 9 years and 6 months past the old Shingles vaccines and had a lighter case. The Urgent care doc tried to tell him it was stress triggered and my hubby just laughed.