Semantics Annie. Chickenpox leads to Shingles so you don’t want to catch it through contact with a chickenpox or Shingles sufferer.
Those like myself and Art who have never had Chickenpox have no need at all to have a Shingles vaccine and indeed to do so WOULD be utterly stupid because it WOULD put us at risk of getting Shingles later in life where currently there is ZERO chance of ever getting it.
For those who HAVE had chickenpox previously it’s a simple risk management and probability assessment.
If you take your health seriously and look after your immune system, especially in older life then personally I would not be worried and would steer clear of the vaccine.
As I said earlier the number of cases of Shingles each year in the UK is approx. 50,000. It is a tiny number compared to the number of people who have previously had Chickenpox.
The odds are very much against you getting Shingles
Vaccinating millions of people just so 50,000 people don’t get Shingles is not sensible but it most certainly is profitable !!!
Similarly vaccinating 100 people with the flu jab just so 1 person will get benefit whilst the other 99 will get no benefit is inherently stupid, but equally is extremely lucrative in terms of making Big Pharma profits.
This kidology just doesn’t wash with those who educate themselves and “wake up” from the stupefied “Matrix”
No it doesn’t for most people and it only happens years later.
like I’ve said it’s your choice, but don’t knock the programme. 90% of people are at risk of having a shingles outbreak at some point in their life. Of that group only some will get it, but anyone who has ever had a shingles outbreak at a younger age should have the vaccine.
It’s their choice but there are hardly any risks so why not have it?
As people age their health may be compromised, particularly if they have chronic conditions or have overcome cancer etc. You may be robust but many have failing health in their later years. If they are at risk then why should they not have the vaccine?
Yes and they don’t vaccinate the entire population. It’s most effective between 70 and 79.
There is no harm in vaccinating the age group just in case. If they don’t want the vaccine they can turn it down. We are very lucky that the NHS offers this vaccine.
Quote from Realist…”"Only those who have previously had chickenpox can develop shingles later in life, and rarely, those who have received the varicella vaccine can develop shingles later in life.”
These two quotes are what l have always been led to believe.
I was also told, l would have to touch the Shingles to contract the virus.
There are 50,000 people out of MILLIONS or people that get Shingles in the UK each year.
Of those 50,000 people approx. 50 die.
The population stats I posted earlier in the thread highlight how many millions of people there are. Aged between 50 and 70yrs there are around 16 million people.
Aged 70-80yrs there are about 5 million.
Your statement that
“They don’t vaccinate millions”
is therefore bogus if they are pushing the vaccine out freely to those over 70yrs
This is a MASSIVELY LUCRATIVE BIG BUSINESS given that the average cost of the vaccine is £150. THAT is the reason for the vaccine’s existence, the rest is BS smoke and mirrors predicated on a Campaign Of Fear.
Your risk of dying from Shingles is ridiculously tiny.
LESS than 1 in 100 people get Shingles each year and of those only 50 die
So 5 million people aged 70-80yrs and only 50 die.
That is 0.0001%
The more you try to defend this ludicrous big business the more you present yourself as a Big Pharma stooge.
All deaths are tragic but risk is risk and the risk here is ridiculously small. We don’t need to vaccinate 5 million 70+ yr olds (sales of £750,000,000!!!) in order to save 50 people.
You likely have far more chance of being run over by a bus.
It’s actually licensed for people aged 50yrs but recommended for people aged 60 yrs up. As it only lasts 5 yrs it’s clear that people will be offered/given repeated jabs.
A very lucrative business.
Even if people only have one jab at age 70yrs, that’s an audience of 5 million people which will rake in £750 million or more for the vaccine manufacturers. But since the vaccine lasts only 5yrs then anyone having it at age 70 is going to have another at age 76 otherwise why bother having the first?
So the £750 million becomes £1.5 billion !
All to save deaths which occur only 0.0001% of the time !
As the saying goes . . .
You can fool some of the people some of the time
But you can’t fool all of the people all of the time
Big Pharma is an evil entity who are waging a war on people’s health in order to peddle their pills, potions, vaccines and treatments. I’m glad I woke up and am no longer a potential victim to that situation.
That’s a US site and nothing to do with the NHS. The NHS has a programme where people are offered a vaccine at age 70 and 78 or 79. Given the average lifespan it covers most of old age.
If you check the facts the uptake isn’t that high. The fact that people still die from shingles in old age is tragic. There are too many unnecessary deaths and too many people suffering from the long term effects of shingles outbreaks when they are already battling serious illness. Your spin on this particular vaccine is unhelpful and inaccurate.
The NHS is irrelevant. It’s a site about the vaccine. What’s important is that it clearly states that the vaccine only lasts 5yrs.
If a 70yr old takes up the vaccine then when they hit 76 they are vulnerable to Shingles again. What are they supposed to do at that point? Answer, they get another shot.
I checked the facts. The take up of the vaccine last year by 70yrs olds was 48.3%. That’s a pretty lucrative result. It means about 2.5 million people took the vaccine. At £150 a pop that’s a tidy £375 million for the Big Pharma fat cats.
The take up of the vaccine by 78 yrs olds was 49% so about the same profit again.
All deaths are tragic but they are a part of life which is unavoidable. 50 deaths a year out of many millions of people is a tiny tiny percentage. One has to keep perspective and stay objective. There is no “spin” whatsoever on my part, just the hard irrefutable facts.
Shingles is NOT a likely risk for the VAST MAJORITY of people. It just isn’t. Only the fraudulent Campaign Of Fear makes people worry about it more than they should.
Only 1% of all 70yr olds will get Shingles. Just 1%.
Like all things where massive profits are involved, it is blown up out of all proportion. Only the weak, vulnerable and uninformed would fall for this nonsense.
Let’s also not forget that this vaccine IS NOT scientifically tested without bias. The largest study conducted involved just 19,000 people and ALL the studies conducted have been funded by the Big Pharma Manufacturers.
The claims of it’s efficacy are therefore somewhat questionable.
The link you have posted refers to England only. ONS data estimates there to have been a population of 665k in England in 2017. So how do you come up with 5 million of 70 year olds in England? That would equate to 9% of the total population being 70 that year. The vaccine doesn’t cost £150. Not all the 665k would be registered to a GP.
The protection doesn’t just stop at 5 years and there will be some residual protection after that because although vaccines are most efficacious in the early years they don’t just switch off at a certain point. So they have the booster at 78 which would last into the early 80s and provide some residual protection after that. That covers most people’s lifespan. This is the case with many vaccines. They provide boosters to give you a higher protection level.
The facts you posted were for England only. We were discussing 70 year olds.
Your link is from Public Health England which only covers the English borders.
There were 665k of 70 year olds estimated in England and they would not all be eligible for vaccination. Let’s say for the sake of argument 48% were vaccinated, that’s 319k.
In Wales the figure was 42k, so let’s halve it for the number vaccinated.
According to Health Protection Scotland 26k of 70 year olds were vaccinated in 15/16 out of a cohort of 48k.
These are not big numbers. It’s a targeted programme and not for all those who are over 65.
Your calculations and representation of data are completely incorrect and misleading.
Anyway I don’t believe 319k people were vaccinated in England. There are no figures available to support this. The data is % uptake by local authority and you’d need the actual figures to be confident in such a high figure. Perhaps realist you could find a source to the actual numbers vaccinated because only Scotland and Wales have published this data as far as i can see.
Realist you are welcome to my shingles in/around my eye, three months and counting.
I’m happy to tell all my friends to get the vaccine rather than have this pain. You can pontificate all you like with figures but until you have experienced shingles I will ignore your so called percentages. 1% is too many if it’s preventable.
You have my sympathy cbrown but your comments like so many others are emotional annecdotal rhetoric. Not something to base decisions on. The FACTS, are not my facts, they are Government facts. And the percentages are not 1%. As I highlighted earlier, the number of instances of Shingles in the UK each year is about 50,000. With a population of approx 65 million people that means 0.076% of the population of the UK gets Shingles each year.
It’s tiny, 7/100ths of a percent.
We don’t need to vaccinate millions and millions of people in order to prevent 0.076% of them developing Shingles.
You will do as you wish of course, as will I. I choose to look after my health and immune system rather than inject coctails of crap into my body from Big Pharma products which exist for the purpose of creating multi million dollar profits.
