Shingles and Flu Shot

Amy,

As one who had agonizing Herpes Zoster-Shingles every three weeks in my right ear, mouth, throat, and more recently right scalp for the past 23 years, I empathize and understand your mother's pain and suffering.

When you have any immunization, your body and immune system is kicked into overdrive. Any stress and weakness, and the varicella virus that has been hibernating on your body's spinal cord sensory cells, waiting for any chance to multiple and overwhelm.

The US government supplies the flu vaccine for free.

On the subject of vaccines. I attended the funerals of family friends, a seven year old girl and a 32 year old mother of four children. Each died 3 days of a staphylococcal pneumonia within onset of contracting influenza. Neither had received the flu vaccine.

My sisters and I were born before there were vaccines for measles, polio, and chicken pox. Do I wish I could have been spared the excruciatingly painful episodes of Herpes Zoster-Shingles? Of course! But then, I could not have helped so many on this forum, either.

My identical twin had measles and develop encephalomeningitis. She was extremely sick and had learning disabilities and petit mal seizures as a consequence.

My older sister had poliomyelitis. Please do not tell me that vaccines are about the money. They are life saving and giving.

I have been an ICU nurse, hospital nurse, public health nurse, and Family Nurse Practitioner for 46 years, and have loved caring for and helping people. It has destroyed me when I have seen people die that could have been prevented.

I hope your mother is doing better is pain free. She is eligible for Shingrex if she resides in the states.

Best Regards

Merry Juliana

I am really hesitant to get the flu shot next year only due to this more than a coincidence chance of triggering off shingles. Your suggestion about being prepared by taking acyclovir beforehand may be good but I am wondering if that may impede the vaccine as it is an antiviral!? Not sure but it might help. Hope they consider this reported adverse effects and new vaccines are developed. Make sure you all report your experience to your GP or Nurse.

Savannah,

You made an absurd claim.

Coincidence is not the same as causality, BTW.

I have never made any money from vaccines. I know vaccines save lives. Period. I have suffered from Shingles for 24 years. My sister had polio. My twin had encephalomeningitis when she had measles.

My father graduated from medical school in NYC in 1928 and worked in an infectious disease hospital in NYC. He saw many die from diptheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, measles, rubella, the list is endless.

What graduate degree from which University do have in science?

I graduated from Columbia U BS

and UCSD MS. I believe in science and facts. You can't fix stupid.

Merry Juliana

Merry19451,

Asserting you're correct because you have a degree isn't a very good argument, considering there are people with higher degrees than you in public health who consider vaccines to to be unsafe and not justified by the risks. Listing people you know (including yourself) who have had an infectious disease or have worked in an infectious disease hospital proves absolutely nothing about vaccine safety or efficacy. The chart linked below shows infectious diseases were on the decline before vaccines were introduced. It was improvements in hygiene, cleaner water and other environmental factors that reduced mortality from infectious disease, not vaccines. How would you explain the decline in scarlet fever and typhoid with NO vaccine during that same time period? And finally, calling someone "stupid" shows you've run out of arguments before you could produce even one good argument. If vaccines are so great, there would be no need for a federal law that indemnifies all vaccine makers and protects them from lawsuits when their vaccine injures or kills.

Moderator comment: I have edited this post due to its medically unsubstantiated claims. We do not support these types of claims and we recommend seeking advice from a health professional

Spoonbill,

I was called a shill. I never take being called names lightly. If people wish to refuse taking vaccines, I am merely pointing out these infectious diseases can cause severe complications and death.

People die from infectious disease. Having read the statistics from the COVID-19 aka Corona Virus pandemic, should alarm most individuals. Its mortality rate is 2%, whereas the influenza mortality rate is 0.1%. The COVID-19 mortality rate is 20 % higher.

The individual who is not vaccinated from a disease is more likely to suffer from or die from the disease.

How many people have you seen die?

It isn't pretty.

Merry Juliana

Please let me know which part of my post was "stupid " I noticed that you work for a vaccine company; was that what you object to as "stupid?" Or did I merely observe something you'd rather hadn't been called out? Because other than that fact, I only spoke of my own experiences, Your anger betrays you. PS 2 cum laude master's degrees, one in curriculum development and one in information security. No, not science , I never claimed that . But for you to claim I'm stupid is disingenuous and shifting the spotlight from your own--apparently quite sensitive--issue. I regret using a too-strong word, and for that I apologize; however, you have been negating others'' legitimate, life-altering, painful situations

Merry Juliana,

Evidently you're not aware that "For the first time, the number of children paralyzed by mutant strains of the polio vaccine are greater than the number of children paralyzed by polio itself." (NPR) Otherwise, you would not have misstated that unvaccinated individuals are more likely to suffer from or die from the disease. However, of greater risk than contracting vaccine-derived Polio is having a serious adverse vaccine reaction - discounted as coincidental by public health officials.

Why does the U.S. lead all other developed countries in infant mortality, despite having the most aggressive vaccine program in the world? Evidently, all those vaccines aren't helping our babies stay alive.

Serious adverse affects of vaccines are disregarded in emergency rooms every single day, while doctors and public health officials claim no link. The $4 billion + paid out in compensations in the U.S. are the tip of the iceberg. Countries with fewer recommended vaccines have healthier children. An educated person like you should be concerned.

BTW, seeing someone die in no way makes them an expert on what causes death.

Dear spoonbill,

I mean no disrespect to anyones view but I cant help wondering how you feel at the moment with COVID 19 threatening the world. Would you be happy if they were able to release a successful vaccine or wait and see?!?

Regards, A concerned member of the health care team.

Michelle56454,

We all have concerns about COVID 19 (although I think it's an overstatement to say it "threatens the world." I believe humanity will survive it, with or without a vaccine).

I would be very happy if a successful AND SAFE vaccine were released. However, such a vaccine would unfortunately be an anomaly. A vaccine has never been introduced that does not seriously harm and kill a certain number of otherwise healthy people (according to the vaccine injury table and other government data). CDC/Pharma claims that number is "one in a million." However, many studies show the risks are far greater than our government admits.

As long as public health officials are not willing to admit that CDC's Thomas Verstraeten found autism increased 7-fold in infants who received thimerosal-containing vaccines in their first month of life, we can never expect anything other than cover-up and whitewash of the truth when it comes to vaccine safety. Those exact numbers:

ADHD: 11.35 times more likely

autism: 7.62 times more likely

ADD: 6.38 times more likely

Tics: 5.65 times more likely

Speech and language delay: 2.08 times more likely

“This study, conducted by investigators at the CDC using the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) of computerized HMO databases was a two-part ‘retrospective cohort study.’ The first phase looked at potential associations between neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) – including autism, ADD, speech and language delay and tics – and thimerosal among 124,170 US children born from 1992 to 1999 at one of two HMOs (A and B)…”

Please view the unpublished abstract of the first version of the study. By the time the study was finally published in 2003 it had undergone multiple additional analyses, with each analysis getting closer to conclusions deemed acceptable. Verstraeten improved the results, and then went to work for vaccine maker GSK.

There's also the fact that Hannah Poling and other compensated children became autistic after vaccines according to statements from HHS which I would be happy to cite for you, nevertheless, the government continues to deny the link.

I'm extremely wary of any vaccine and would opt for the tiny risk of getting the disease - from which I would very likely recover since I live in the U.S. and benefit from modern healthcare and clean water. Children do not need 66 vaccines to grow up healthy. All those vaccines are the result of the NVCIP act of 1986 which shielded vaccine makers from liability. After that, the number of vaccines exploded.

Follow the money. It's a $40 billion business.

One retrospective cohort study is not a valid scientific study. It proves nothing. It may lead to better designed studies, however.

A double-blind placebo study with statistical analysis can be a valid study when it has been replicated by independent researchers.

Dear Savannah,

I am sorry I stated, you cant fix stupid. You are not stupid. You and I merely possess different points of view. We have both suffered from shingles, which is the real enemy.

Please know I am not a shill, stooge, or plant for any corporations or anyone. When Shingrix was announced, I was extremely hopeful for individuals who have recurring Shingles that it would help them and me. It has helped attenuate the severity of the episode, and decreased the frequency of episodes in others on the forum.

Best Wishes

Merry Juliana

So the CDC is not conducting valid scientific studies? LOL !!

How is the study not designed well enough for you? 124,170 children is a LOT of children!

You're evidently unaware that the CDC refuses to conduct a double-blind placebo-controlled study of vaccinated vs. unvaccinated children, citing such a study as unethical. The CDC would likely refuse to conduct a thimerosal vs. non-thimerosal vaccine study as well.

So you've dismissed the study that shows thimerosal causes neurological harm in children, and you've proposed a study the CDC refuses to conduct!

Do you not see how untenable your position is?

oh I hear you. You live in the US! No vaccine necessary for anything then.

Michelle56454,

Please don't put words in my mouth. I never said vaccines are "necessary" anywhere. My point is that citing death statistics of a disease worldwide (measles, for example) is meaningless in the U.S. where it's exceedingly rare to die of measles. This is due to better sanitation, nutrition, and widespread availability of medical care in the U.S. vs. third world countries.

If the admin of this forum hadn't censored a chart I tried to link to, I would be able to show you how these diseases were on the decline prior to the introduction of the vaccines.

Frankly,

I am never going to agree with you regarding vaccines. I was referring to the study you had cited. Autism is not caused by vaccines. There are genetic factors causing autism.

This forum is regarding shingles.

Agree. Thank you for reminding us of this. Was lost for a moment. We are heading into our flu season here again. We are caring for our immune systems the best we can. As I hope is everyone. Regards from Aussie land.

Michelle,

You probably read about my identical twin's complications and other sister's bout with polio.

Greetings from the Northern Hemisphere!

So sorry about your catastrophic fires!

Merry Juliana

This thread is a discussion of a possible link between vaccines and shingles, and the discussion broadened to vaccine safety in general. You certainly participated in broadening that topic. I didn't do it all by myself. I brought up autism because it relates to vaccine safety. To your point, there is a genetic predisposition towards autism, but billions of dollars in NIH research have yielded no autism gene. Even the AMA has stated that autism is caused by genetic AND environmental factors. That would include medical interventions like vaccines. I'm shocked that you seem to be unaware of medications that have been proven to cause autism - including valproic acid and thalidomide. There is no such thing as a genetic epidemic, and autism is now epidemic. The skyrocketing numbers dovetailed with the increase in recommended vaccines (following federal law that made vaccine manufacturers liability-free. But of course, you consider that a coincidence. )

If injecting ethyl mercury, polysorbate 80 and formaldehyde is the best you can do to care for your immune season, then I wish you luck. I'll stick with my vitamin C, D, E, betacarotene, zinc, and other immune-boosting supplements and foods. And I will try hard to avoid sugar - an immunosuppressant.

Hi Merry I did. So sad for you. Thank you, nature is bouncing back here with greenery and dams full with water. Our wildlife will take a bit longer to recover. Sadly we all have this COVID to face now. You take care also 😃

merryjuliana, I do sincerely apologize. I overreacted.

Me too, and we are here to help each other.

Thank you for responding. I feel better about the whole situation.

Warm regards,

Merry Juliana

I lived in San Diego where wild fires abound with the Santana Winds. I feel for the wild life and people who lose their homes and lives.

oh dear. Try to start by being kind to others.

Please provide evidence that I have been unkind.

OMG !!! Haunting looking back on this comment.