Shingles risk with COVID vaccine

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harllee said:
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
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I dunno - it irks me when people blame their doctor. I see enough commercials about it on TV, and there is word of mouth. A lot of people know someone who's had a bad bout with it, and the take away is that it's very painful and to just get the shot.

Our doctor never recommended it either, we just took the initiative ourselves.
 
JoeWras said:
Those latent herpes viruses can reactivate with any stress or trauma.
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This is what folks tend to forget. The virus is with you for life.
You can learn what things exacerbate an outbreak and work to avoid it, but not always.

OP--sorry your family member is going through an outbreak. Hopefully, the medications will help ease the symptoms and the virus will recede again.
 
Lake resort. Any sunburn? Sunburns are stressful, especially for diseases that manifest in the skin.
ivinsfan said:
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.
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ocean view said:
Kaiser recommends the vaccine for those over 60! I guess I’ll need to ask if I want it sooner.
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I had my first case of Shingles at age 52 and it was awful, awful, awful. This was before there was any type of vaccine
 
harllee said:
I had my first case of Shingles at age 52 and it was awful, awful, awful. This was before there was any type of vaccine
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Not saying that I agree with Kaiser, just pointing out where they stand for those who use Kaiser and not realize that they use age 60 rather than 50 as the marker.
 
From reviewing online articles, some vaccines provide certain benefits against other disease other than the one for which they are targeted, i.e. TB (BCG) & MMR. Others seem to (temporarily) weaken resistance to other disease. The later does not seem to be widely publicized.

Coincidentally, I got very sick about 2-3 weeks after a flu shot in February of 2020 - with "not the flu". It may have had absolutely nothing to do with the flu vaccine, but I choose my vaccines very carefully in the fall of 2020 and this spring.

I choose a pneumonia vaccine (because my illness following my flu vaccines included pneumonia); I got the two Shingrex vaccines (I have had chicken pox, and felt that my system was weak - and my rationale was that I wanted to reduce my risk of Shingles); and I had my two Moderna vaccines. (I don't know whether I had Covid in March of 2020, but really wanted to boost immunity to Covid.) I monitored flu outbreaks locally over the winter, there was basically none. I skipped the flu vaccine this last season. I am not recommending this for others, those were my choices.

The Shingrex and Moderna vaccines hit me hard and I feel like a need a bit of a respite for a few months before someone else comes after me with a needle.

But yes, bottom line, I could accept that the Covid vaccine could in certain individuals (temporarily) reduce the immune's system's ability to fight off another latent virus, allowing for a flare.
 
This ended up being a lively discussion. Thank you all for the insight!

This popped up in my new feed this morning and seems to refute the Covid vaccine/Shingles connection. At this point, I am fairly convinced that the outbreak was not triggered by the vaccine, but I'm not 100% there. Remember, county health planted the idea and I have to allow there may be more to this than is being made public. I guess time will tell. I'm happy to report that my husband is on the mend and seems to have a milder case.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-04-shingles-covid-vaccines-science.html

Regarding timing of the Shingles vaccine: A couple of years ago, we inquired at the pharmacy about the vaccine and were told that being under 60 required a prescription. My doctor did not recommend the vaccine until i was 60 (and I promptly received it). My husbands doctor has not recommended it yet -- I assume he will when he turns 60, but that will be too late -- as soon as he has recovered he will be vaccinated :). Also, as of a couple of years ago, our insurance would not cover it until age 60 (that may have changed now, I have not checked). The point is, although it's advised to be vaccinated at 50, there appears to be conflict between the drug manufacturer, medical professionals and insurance companies.
 
ivinsfan said:
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...
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I'll "calm down" if you work on your comprehension skills. It was less than 3 weeks not 4 weeks. Women are developing blood clots in the brain 3 weeks after receiving the J&J vaccine, so I'm not sure why this is so hard for you to believe. With that said...see my previous post.
 
Winenot said:
I'll "calm down" if you work on your comprehension skills. It was less than 3 weeks not 4 weeks. Women are developing blood clots in the brain 3 weeks after receiving the J&J vaccine, so I'm not sure why this is so hard for you to believe. With that said...see my previous post.
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Well, you say your DH had Moderna which has a 4 week spacing. Are you saying he got his shots less then 3 weeks apart? perhaps he didn't get Moderna or you got the dates confused.



What did you want me to believe?
 
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OP--Your husband will not be "vaccinated" from shingles when he recovers!
It is not a one and done illness, it can return multiple times.

It is recommended you get the Shingrix even if you have had shingles.
The Shingrix vaccine helps prevent reoccurrence of shingles.
 
pacergal said:
OP--Your husband will not be "vaccinated" from shingles when he recovers!
It is not a one and done illness, it can return multiple times.

It is recommended you get the Shingrix even if you have had shingles.
The Shingrix vaccine helps prevent reoccurrence of shingles.
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I apologize if I didn't make myself clear....as soon as he recovers he will be get the vaccine.
 
Winenot said:
This ended up being a lively discussion. Thank you all for the insight!

This popped up in my new feed this morning and seems to refute the Covid vaccine/Shingles connection. At this point, I am fairly convinced that the outbreak was not triggered by the vaccine, but I'm not 100% there. Remember, county health planted the idea and I have to allow there may be more to this than is being made public. I guess time will tell. I'm happy to report that my husband is on the mend and seems to have a milder case.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-04-shingles-covid-vaccines-science.html

Regarding timing of the Shingles vaccine: A couple of years ago, we inquired at the pharmacy about the vaccine and were told that being under 60 required a prescription. My doctor did not recommend the vaccine until i was 60 (and I promptly received it). My husbands doctor has not recommended it yet -- I assume he will when he turns 60, but that will be too late -- as soon as he has recovered he will be vaccinated :). Also, as of a couple of years ago, our insurance would not cover it until age 60 (that may have changed now, I have not checked). The point is, although it's advised to be vaccinated at 50, there appears to be conflict between the drug manufacturer, medical professionals and insurance companies.
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Glad you husband is on the mend--Shingles in the eye can really be serious. Your husband should be vaccinated with Shingrix after he is fully recovered--he should check to see if the CDC is recommending how long he should wait. You can get Shingles over and over again so he still needs the vaccine. The CDC recommends the Shingles vaccine starting at age 50, many insurance companies won't pay until age 60 because the vaccine is expensive and 2 shots are required. Medicare does not pay for the vaccine--some Medicare Part D plans pay a portion of the price.
 
Winenot said:
I apologize if I didn't make myself clear....as soon as he recovers he will be get the vaccine.
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There is a recommended waiting time between having shingles and getting the shingles vaccine.


My DH got vaccinated at the 60 day plus mark..
 
Winenot said:
although it's advised to be vaccinated at 50, there appears to be conflict between the drug manufacturer, medical professionals and insurance companies.
Click to expand...

There also appears to be conflict between the NYS Dept. of Health and the NYS Dept. of Health. A heading here says "Zoster (Shingles) Vaccine - For adults 60 years and older" but the page linked directly under it says "Shingrix is recommended for adults 50 and older."
 
Boho said:
There also appears to be conflict between the NYS Dept. of Health and the NYS Dept. of Health. A heading here says "Zoster (Shingles) Vaccine - For adults 60 years and older" but the page linked directly under it says "Shingrix is recommended for adults 50 and older."
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Well depending on which type of shot one gets.
The original recommendation was for folks over 60, but with the newer Shingrix shot, it has been effectively changed to 50 and over.
 
I was glad I got the Shingrex before the Covid vaccine, HOWEVER, when I got my first Shingrex vaccine the Covid vaccine was not authorized for EUA. I was in no hurry for the second Shingrex; which resulted in me receiving it about a month before my first Covid 19 vaccine. That was within guidelines; but if I had to do it again, I would have moved both the Shingrex vaccinations up about two months for a bigger gap between the Shingrex and Covid vaccines.


One of my co-workers (recently) was advised by her doctor to hold off on getting the Shingrex until after her Covid vaccines, due to a greater risk from Covid.
 
DW got really minor shingles after the 1st dose of Pfizer. We looked at it but didn't connect it with the COVID vaccine. Then after the 2nd shot the shingles become more pronounced, but still a mild case. They started disappearing about a week after the second shot. We thought it was just a coincidence, but once I saw that article about the Israeli patients, I guess not!!

DW got the shingles vaccine two years ago and does not have an autoimmune disease (that we know of). So there are differences from the patients in the article, most of whom were not vaccinated.
 
timo2 said:
DW got really minor shingles after the 1st dose of Pfizer. We looked at it but didn't connect it with the COVID vaccine. Then after the 2nd shot the shingles become more pronounced, but still a mild case. They started disappearing about a week after the second shot. We thought it was just a coincidence, but once I saw that article about the Israeli patients, I guess not!!

DW got the shingles vaccine two years ago and does not have an autoimmune disease (that we know of). So there are differences from the patients in the article, most of whom were not vaccinated.
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Interesting. I'm becoming more and more convinced there is a link between the COVID vaccine and shingles. There is some chatter about it on other forums and reports of healthy, younger people contracting it after receiving the vaccine. Of course, it's all anecdotal at this point (as far as we know), with the exception of the study in Israel. In my husbands case...we're not really sure now when he first had symptoms, but it was sometime after the first shot, then symptoms really ramped up after the second. He ended up having the mildest case of shingles I've ever heard of...he was diagnosed at the clinic a week ago Monday and ended up having 4 miserable days and 4 blisters. He still has a lingering earache and an occasional "zinger", but they are less intense and are fewer and further between. Apparently nothing debilitating -- he placed 3rd in a golf tournament this past Monday :)
 
Winenot said:
Interesting. I'm becoming more and more convinced there is a link between the COVID vaccine and shingles. There is some chatter about it on other forums and reports of healthy, younger people contracting it after receiving the vaccine. Of course, it's all anecdotal at this point (as far as we know), with the exception of the study in Israel. In my husbands case...we're not really sure now when he first had symptoms, but it was sometime after the first shot, then symptoms really ramped up after the second. He ended up having the mildest case of shingles I've ever heard of...he was diagnosed at the clinic a week ago Monday and ended up having 4 miserable days and 4 blisters. He still has a lingering earache and an occasional "zinger", but they are less intense and are fewer and further between. Apparently nothing debilitating -- he placed 3rd in a golf tournament this past Monday :)
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Young and healthy , you mean the people with auto immune problems like rheumatoid arthritis ? They often take meds that suppress the immune system.
 
ivinsfan said:
Young and healthy , you mean the people with auto immune problems like rheumatoid arthritis ? They often take meds that suppress the immune system.
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The posts I've read do not mention autoimmune issues, but I have not not read them all. It's all over Reddit, and interestingly, there are also reports of people coming down with shingles after contracting COVID (the disease, not the vaccine). Anyway, as I mentioned above it's all anecdotal at this point so who knows? Time will tell....
 
Winenot said:
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?
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Interesting. My sister, just sent me an email. She and husband, both
received, Moderna. They both, had shingles shot years earlier. Husband,
had "something" on his back. They took picture of it. Sent it to Md.
MD, said it was "Shingles". But because, husband was vaccinated. It
"cured" itself. No major issues.
 
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