Page 84 - Spring2020

From the Regrettably, children are developing to cause the disease it is meant to prevent. The
outset, the shingles from the chickenpox vaccine itself—as CDC admits as much, stating that, rarely, “live
proven by molecular analysis. A 2009 study shingles vaccines can cause rash or shingles.”
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Zostavax titled “The incidence and clinical characteristics In 2014, the FDA required that Merck add a
shingles of herpes zoster among children and adolescents warning about the potential for vaccine-strain
vaccine after implementation of varicella vaccination,” infection to the list of side effects associated
published in The Pediatric Infectious Disease with its shingles vaccine.
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has been Journal, reported that the incidence of shingles From the outset, Zostavax has been plagued
plagued by jumped by 63 percent among young people ten by questions about its safety. A 2015 study in
questions to nineteen years of age in the U.S. from 2000 the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology described
a significantly increased risk of developing two
to 2006. Reluctant to blame chickenpox vac-
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about its cination, the researchers stated only that this autoimmune conditions—alopecia (hair loss)
safety. increase “could not be confidently explained” and arthritis—in those who had received the
and continued to advocate the vaccine’s “wide- shingles vaccine. Although vaccinated seniors
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spread use.” North Carolina researchers who were more than twice as likely to subsequently
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reviewed roughly two dozen published cases of develop the two conditions, the authors dis-
vaccine-strain shingles in children and adoles- missed the adverse outcomes’ importance as
cents found that the average age of infection was being non-life-threatening and pronounced the
5.3 years, with infection occurring, on average, vaccine “relatively safe.”
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about three years after chickenpox vaccination. 28 Other researchers disagree, however. In a
In 2011, researchers examined laboratory 2013 letter published in the New England Jour-
characteristics of fourteen suspected shingles nal of Medicine, a Bethesda, Maryland, geriatric
cases in varicella-vaccinated children—includ- expert cited a statistically significant 36 percent
ing three children who had experienced natural increase in the rate of serious adverse events
chickenpox in infancy before receiving their associated with shingles vaccination in persons
vaccines; the researchers concluded that a third sixty years of age or older and pronounced the
of the confirmed shingles cases “were due to vaccine’s safety “questionable.” Despite these
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vaccine-type virus.” 30 concerns, Merck distributed in excess of thirty-
The incidence of shingles is also on the rise six million doses of Zostavax from 2006 to 2017,
in the adult population. A 2005 Massachusetts earning an average of six hundred eighty-five
study that examined chickenpox and shingles million dollars annually—and seven hundred
incidence “during a period of increasing vari- forty-nine million dollars in 2017 alone.
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cella vaccine coverage” (1999-2003) determined In his New England Journal of Medicine
that shingles incidence increased by 90 percent letter, the geriatric expert also observed that
across all age groups—but it rose by a whop- the shingles vaccine’s efficacy has been vastly
ping 161 percent in persons aged twenty-five to overstated. In fact, as NVIC summarizes, ef-
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forty-four. ficacy studies have found a significant decrease
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in the vaccine’s effectiveness just one year post-
NEW PROBLEMS=NEW VACCINES vaccination, “and by nine years, Zostavax was
In 2006, in response to the burgeoning determined to be no longer effective at prevent-
shingles epidemic, Merck (the same manufac- ing shingles.” Its own package insert states,
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turer that produces the chickenpox and MMR “The duration of protection beyond 4 years
II vaccines) launched the first shingles vaccine, after vaccination with Zostavax is unknown.” 37
Zostavax. Like the chickenpox vaccine, Zos- Merck has faced (and continues to face) a
tavax is a live-attenuated vaccine, meaning it multitude of lawsuits pertaining to Zostavax,
too contains a weakened form of the varicella- with autoimmune disorders, cardiovascular
zoster virus. The vaccine’s other ingredients issues, congestive heart failure, hearing loss,
are similar to those in the company’s varicella brain inflammation, necrotizing retinitis, spinal
vaccines (see sidebar). Because Zostavax is a cord inflammation, stroke, vasculitis, death
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live-attenuated vaccine, it also has the potential and shingles all associated with the vaccine.
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84 Wise Traditions SPRING 2020