What's the deal with chickenpox?
Before vaccination the CDC reported almost 4 million cases
annually with around 100 deaths. That's a .0025% chance of death
from the chicken pox. For comparison the CDC also reports about
450 people a year die from falling out of bed.
Merck's chickenpox vaccine was approved for license in the US in 1995.
At that time, what had always been regarded as a relatively benign
childhood illness was suddenly reinvented as a life-threatening disease for
which children must get vaccinated or face dire health consequences.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8CbgaDsoHs
Before the live virus chickenpox vaccine was recommended for all children
by the CDC and states started passing laws mandating that children get it
to attend school, most children acquired a natural, longer-lasting immunity
to chickenpox by age six. Before 1995, it was estimated that only 10
percent of Americans over the age of 15 had not had chickenpox. it is
because chickenpox can be serious in adults that it is often regarded as
preferable to get it as a child, as opposed to later in adulthood.
The chickenpox vaccine is made from live, attenuated (weakened) varicella
virus. Unlike the type of immunity acquired from experiencing the disease,
the vaccine provides only temporary immunity, and that immunity is not
the same kind of superior, longer lasting immunity you get when you
recover naturally from chickenpox. It's important to realize that naturally recovering from chickenpox is the only way you can establish longer lasting immunity that will protect you
until you come in contact with younger children with chickenpox and are
asymptomatically boosted, which will not only reinforce your chickenpox
immunity but will also help protect you against getting a painful case of
shingles later in life. Merck has developed and is marketing a shingles
vaccine. However, that vaccine currently is under lawsuit for causing shingles in people who received the vaccine. https://www.classaction.com/zostavax/lawsuit/
Recent research has also cast major doubts on the effectiveness of the
chickenpox vaccine, which is now also associated with a rise in the
numbers of cases of shingles in older children and adults. As chickenpox
vaccination coverage has increased in the U.S., so has the incidence of
shingles increased—giving evidence for the risks associated with relying on
vaccine-acquired immunity.
A reviews of the United States use of the chicken pox vaccine concluded, "The universal varicella (chickenpox) vaccination program now requires a booster vaccine for children and an HZ vaccine to boost protection in adults. However,these are less effective than the natural immunity that existed in communities prior to licensure of the varicella vaccine. Hence, rather than eliminating varicella in children as promised, routine vaccination against varicella has proven extremely costly and has created continual cycles of treatment and disease."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3759842/
What are we truly accomplishing with this vaccine?
