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Tag: Chickenpox

  • Chicken pox, shingles and the vaccines: What to know

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    Most people have a virus hiding in their cells. It’s probably been there for years, and it could reactivate anytime. This virus, varicella-zoster, causes both chickenpox and shingles, a painful rash infection.

    Fortunately, vaccines protect against these diseases. But can a vaccine against one infection cause the other? 

    In a 2023 video clip that recently recirculated on social media, anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that a California study found that widespread chickenpox vaccination stops chickenpox but later “causes shingles epidemics.” 

    It was not immediately clear what study Kennedy, now the Trump administration’s Health and Human Services secretary,  was referring to, and we didn’t hear back from his Health and Human Services Department. But current available research doesn’t show that widespread chickenpox vaccination efforts increased shingles cases in the U.S.

    What else do we know about chickenpox, shingles and the vaccines for both diseases? Here are the basics. 

    Q: What is chickenpox and who can get it? 

    Chickenpox is highly contagious. Although it shares symptoms such as fever, headache and fatigue with other infections, chickenpox is best known for its itchy, blistering rash.

    A person can become infected by having direct contact with a chickenpox rash or breathing in the air droplets after a chickenpox patient coughs or sneezes. 

    Anyone who hasn’t had chickenpox or been vaccinated against it is at the highest risk of an infection. The disease is usually more severe for adults. 

    Q: Who should get the chickenpox vaccine and when?  

    Doctors recommend the chickenpox vaccine’s two-dose series for anyone who hasn’t had a chickenpox or shingles infection or whose bloodwork shows they don’t have immunity, according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. 

    The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children get the first dose between 12 and 15 months of age and the second dose between 4 and 6 years of age.

    The vaccine isn’t 100% effective, but breakthrough infections among vaccinated people are rare and usually milder than what an unvaccinated person would experience. 

    Adults who get chickenpox are 10 times more likely than children to be hospitalized, so even though chickenpox is often considered a childhood illness, teenagers and adults without immunity should get vaccinated. The American Academy of Pediatrics has guidelines for how people can best catch-up on the doses.

    Q: What is shingles and who can get it?

    Anyone who has had chickenpox can get shingles. Even after someone has recovered from a chickenpox infection, the varicella-zoster virus remains dormant in certain nerves. Shingles, also called herpes zoster, is a viral infection that occurs when that virus reactivates. 

    Shingles symptoms include fever, headache, a painful, blistered rash and deep burning or shooting nerve pain. Shingles on the head can infect your eyes, which requires immediate medical attention.

    It’s not entirely clear what reactivates the virus, but shingles is more common as people age and their immune systems weaken. 

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 1 in 3 people in the U.S. will have shingles in their lifetime. About 50% of people who live to 85 years old will be infected, according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

    It’s rare for children to get shingles, but they could effectively catch chickenpox from someone with a shingles infection. A person who has shingles can expose people without immunity to the varicella-zoster virus, which risks spreading chickenpox to anyone unprotected.  

    Q: Can the chickenpox vaccine cause shingles? 

    Yes, but early research signals that it’s uncommon. 

    The chickenpox vaccine teaches the immune system how to fight off infection. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia says that the chickenpox vaccine’s weakened virus reproduces in the body far less than the natural virus, which reproduces thousands of times during an infection. The weakened virus, meanwhile, only reproduces about 20 times. This means the vaccine can introduce the virus that causes shingles to the body, but it’s unlikely to cause an infection.

    The varicella vaccine wasn’t routinely recommended for children in the U.S. until 1996, so we don’t yet know how this widespread vaccination will impact future shingles cases for vaccinated adults, the oldest of whom are now turning 30.

    But one 2019 Pediatrics study found that the annual rates of shingles in children vaccinated against chickenpox were consistently lower than in unvaccinated children. The vaccine virus is also less likely to reactivate than the virus in nature, lab research shows. 

    Q: Should I vaccinate my child against chickenpox if it can cause shingles?

    Unvaccinated children are susceptible to chickenpox infections and all the complications that can follow, including shingles. 

    Before vaccination became routine in childhood, chickenpox infections hospitalized more than 10,000 people and killed 100 or more each year, according to the CDC. Half of those deaths were children.

    “That doesn’t happen anymore,” said Dr. Myron Levin, a pediatric infectious disease professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz. CDC data attributed fewer than 25 deaths to chickenpox infections or complications in 2024 and 2025.

    Vaccinating children also affords them important long-term protections, especially against a more severe adult infection. 

    “You don’t want your child to grow up with the opportunity to get chickenpox in the last 40 or 50 years of their life, because if they do, they’re going to be sick as hell,” Levin said.

    A pharmacist displays doses of a vaccine that protects against shingles, at a CVS Pharmacy, Sept. 9, 2025, in Miami. (AP)

    Q: Who should get the shingles vaccine and when? 

    Health officials recommend people 50 and older get the two-dose shingles vaccine, Shingrix. That’s true even if someone previously had shingles or received Zostavax, a former shingles vaccine. They also recommend Shingrix for some immunocompromised people starting at age 19. The two doses should be separated by two to six months. 

    The vaccine’s common side effects include two to three days of fatigue, muscle ache, fever, shivering, headache, and injection site soreness and redness. Doctors caution that those side effects are minor compared with the pain and risk of long-term complications, including chronic pain, from shingles. 

    Q: Can the shingles vaccine lead to shingles?

    Cases of this happening are extremely rare. The shingles vaccine contains a small part of the virus that causes shingles, not the live varicella-zoster virus, so it cannot cause chickenpox or shingles on its own. In some isolated documented cases, the shingles vaccine appeared to have reactivated the virus, resulting in shingles.  

    PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

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  • CDC announces change in COVID-19 and chickenpox vaccine recommendations

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    The new acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced changes to the recommended vaccination schedule for adults against COVID-19 and for kids against chickenpox.

    The changes were expected and were already previewed by recommendations made two weeks ago by the CDC’s powerful Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. All members of the committee were recently replaced after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired everyone on the previous panel earlier this year.

    The CDC’s changes have been criticized by mainstream medical groups.

    The CDC is now recommending that children under the age of 4 no longer get a combination vaccine that protects against four diseases: the chickenpox (also known as varicella), measles, mumps and rubella. Instead, the CDC now recommends two separate shots, one just against chickenpox, and the other that protects against measles, mumps and rubella.

    The CDC has also now officially lifted its recommendation that adults under age 65 get the updated COVID-19 vaccine. The CDC now says the decision on whether an adult under age 65 gets a COVID-19 vaccine should be based on “individual-based decision-making” in consultation with health professionals like a physician, nurse or pharmacist.

    This matches a change in recommendations made to the childhood vaccination schedule earlier this year.

    The announcement was made by acting CDC director Jim O’Neill, a top deputy to Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic. O’Neill replaced Susan Monarez, who was fired as CDC director after 29 days on the job. Monarez said she was terminated after she pushed back against an effort by her bosses to undermine vaccines; Kennedy said she was fired because she said she was not trustworthy.

    O’Neill has no training in medicine or healthcare and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in humanities, according to the Associated Press, and is a former investor who has been a critic of health regulations. He has previously worked at the Department of Health and Human Services, serving six years under President George W. Bush.

    O’Neill’s announcement said that the changes will still allow for immunization coverage to continue through programs including the Vaccines for Children program, Children’s Health Insurance Program, Medicare and Medicaid.

    The American Academy for Pediatrics in late September criticized the change, which removed the option for toddlers to get a single shot that can protect against chickenpox, measles, mumps and rubella.

    The acting CDC director’s statement, issued by the press office of the Department of Health and Human Services, raised concerns about an increased risk of febrile seizure caused by fever after getting the combined chickenpox, measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (known as MMRV) versus those given the chickenpox vaccine separately.

    The American Academy of Pediatrics said that in a meeting last month, some of the CDC’s new vaccine advisors “at times…misrepresented data and used talking points common among anti-vaccine groups. Some seemed unfamiliar with febrile seizures. They also disregarded CDC assurances that febrile seizures after MMRV are rare and do not have long-term impacts.”

    The American Academy of Family Physicians recommends that all adults get the updated COVID-19 vaccine, especially those with risk conditions and people who have never gotten a COVID-19 vaccine.

    The California Department of Public Health has slightly different guidelines. The agency recommends that adults younger than 65 with risk factors get the COVID-19 vaccine, as well as all adults who are in close contact with others with risk factors, and everyone who chooses to get vaccinated. The agency also recommends that all seniors get vaccinated against COVID-19.

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    Rong-Gong Lin II

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  • Kennedy’s advisory panel is expected to vote on hepatitis B and MMRV vaccines

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    ATLANTA — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new vaccine advisory committee meets Thursday to begin a two-day session focused on shots against COVID-19, hepatitis B and chickenpox.

    Votes are expected Thursday afternoon on hepatitis B and on a combined shot against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox, but Department of Health and Human Services officials have not said exactly what proposals would be considered.

    Information on the meeting agenda suggests the committee may be poised to roll back — at least partly — a longstanding recommendation that all U.S. children get an initial dose of hepatitis B vaccine right after birth.

    The American Academy of Pediatrics and many public health officials support that decades-old practice.

    Dr. Mysheika Roberts, health department director in Columbus, Ohio, said rates of the liver disease among children have dropped tremendously since it was put into place.

    “I don’t understand the rationale of why we would stop providing that vaccine and that guidance to babies when we’ve seen such great progress in that area,” said Roberts, who was scheduled to join the vaccine panel but was dismissed by Kennedy. “If it’s not broken, why change it?”

    The committee’s chair, Martin Kulldorff, also has raised the idea of recommending the MMRV combination shot not be given to children younger than 4. In a June presentation to the committee, he discussed rare instances of feverish seizures that have been associated with the first dose, given to kids between ages 1 and 2.

    The ACIP last dealt with the issue in 2009, when it said either the combination shot or separate MMR and varicella shots were acceptable for the first dose. Today, most pediatricians suggest separate doses for the first round and give the combined shot for the second dose, pediatrics experts say.

    Some doctors and public health experts say they are not aware of any new safety data that would explain the revisiting of those vaccination recommendations. They worry that the panel is raising unwarranted new questions about vaccines in the minds of parents, and that it may limit the ability of families to get their children protected.

    The panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, makes recommendations to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how already-approved vaccines should be used. CDC directors have almost always accepted those recommendations, which are widely heeded by doctors and guide vaccination programs.

    Kennedy, a leading antivaccine activist before becoming the nation’s top health official, fired the entire 17-member panel earlier this year and replaced it with a group that includes several anti-vaccine voices. On Monday, HHS announced the addition of five more people, some of them noted skeptics of COVID-19 vaccinations or pandemic prevention measures.

    Doctors’ groups and public health organizations have voiced alarm about Kennedy and his new panel. Concern intensified in May, when Kennedy announced he was removing COVID-19 shots from the CDC’s recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women. The move was heavily criticized by doctors’ groups and public health organizations, and prompted a lawsuit by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other groups.

    The committee is scheduled to make COVID-19 vaccine recommendations on Friday.

    The AAP and some others groups have issued their own vaccination recommendations, which disagree with recommendations put out by federal officials this year.

    In recent weeks, several states have announced policies to help residents maintain access to vaccines, in some cases signing orders that ensure COVID-19 vaccinations at pharmacies without individual prescriptions. Wisconsin this week joined a list of more than a dozen to take steps, when Gov. Tony Evers signed an executive order for state health officials to follow the guidance of national physician organizations.

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    Ungar reported from Louisville, Kentucky.

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    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Florida’s plan to drop school vaccine rule won’t start for 90 days, won’t cover all diseases

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    Florida’s plan to drop school vaccine mandates likely won’t take effect for 90 days and would include only chickenpox and a few other illnesses unless lawmakers decide to extend it to other diseases, like polio and measles, the health department said Sunday.

    The department responded to a request for details, four days after Florida’s surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, said the state would become the first to make vaccinations voluntary and let families decide whether to inoculate their children.

    It’s a retreat from decades of public policy and research that has shown vaccines to be safe and the most effective way to stop the spread of communicable diseases, especially among children. Despite that evidence, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has expressed deep skepticism about vaccines.

    Florida’s plan would lift mandates on school vaccines for hepatitis B, chickenpox, Hib influenza and pneumococcal diseases, such as meningitis, the health department said.

    “The Department initiated the rule change on September 3, 2025, and anticipates the rule change will not be effective for approximately 90 days,” the state told The Associated Press in an email. The public school year in Florida started in August.

    All other vaccinations required under Florida law to attend school “remain in place, unless updated through legislation,” including vaccines for measles, polio, diphtheria, pertussis, mumps and tetanus, the department said.

    Lawmakers don’t meet again until January 2026, although committee meetings begin in October.

    Ladapo, appearing Sunday on CNN, repeated his message of free choice for childhood vaccines.

    “If you want them, God bless, you can have as many as you want,” he said. “And if you don’t want them, parents should have the ability and the power to decide what goes into their children’s bodies. It’s that simple.”

    Florida currently has a religious exemption for vaccine requirements. Vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives globally over the past 50 years, the World Health Organization reported in 2024. The majority of those were infants and children.

    Dr. Rana Alissa, chair of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said making vaccines voluntary puts students and school staff at risk.

    This is the worst year for measles in the U.S. in more than three decades, with more than 1,400 cases confirmed nationwide, most of them in Texas, and three deaths.

    Whooping cough has killed at least two babies in Louisiana and a 5-year-old in Washington state since winter, as it too spreads rapidly. There have been more than 19,000 cases as of Aug. 23, nearly 2,000 more than this time last year, according to preliminary CDC data.

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  • Florida surgeon general Ladapo’s vaccine mandates opposition goes against medical mainstream

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    ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Dr. Joseph Ladapo, whose credentials include two Harvard University degrees, says that requiring vaccinations for diseases like measles, polio and chickenpox amounts to government-imposed “slavery.” It’s far from the first time Florida’s surgeon general has cut against the medical establishment grain.

    Ladapo, an appointee of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, made worldwide headlines this week by announcing Florida would seek to eliminate all mandated vaccinations for schoolchildren and others. He cast the immunization requirements, which date back decades and are considered a major global medical achievement that has saved millions of lives, as improper government intrusion in personal health decisions.

    “Every last one is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,” Ladapo said at a news conference with DeSantis this week. “Who am I, or anyone else, to tell you what you should put in your body? Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body? I don’t have that right.”

    So far, a concrete action plan for eliminating immunization mandates in Florida has not emerged, despite multiple requests by The Associated Press. Ladapo acknowledged some proposed changes would require the state Legislature to act. Educators and many health professionals are aghast.

    “Removing policies that keep our children healthy creates unnecessary confusion and fear,” said Dr. Rana Alissa, president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “Schools are tight-knit networks of children, educators, and families, making it easy for contagious diseases to spread.”

    Ladapo, 46, emigrated from Nigeria to the U.S. at age five with his parents. He earned a degree in chemistry from Wake Forest University and then attended Harvard, where he got his medical degree and also a doctorate in health policy.

    This is a well-trodden path for medical expertise. Ladapo was affiliated after Harvard with New York University and later UCLA, where his op-eds against the pandemic response were noticed by DeSantis, who tapped him as Florida surgeon general in 2021. Ladapo also got a professor position at the University of Florida medical school in the deal.

    Like the governor, Ladapo raised questions about COVID-19 policies that forced people to wear masks and move education online, keep their distance from others and show proof of COVID vaccinations to attend public events, go to a restaurant or take a cruise. Ladapo also misrepresented studies to raise doubts about the mRNA vaccine, the studies’ authors said.

    In a 2024 guidance statement, Ladapo’s Department of Health warned against using the COVID vaccine at all, contending that “the federal government has failed to provide sufficient data to support the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 boosters, or acknowledge previously demonstrated safety concerns associated with COVID-19 vaccines and boosters.” Those purported risks include respiratory tract infections, greater chance of autoimmune disease and cardiovascular problems.

    Almost every major medical or public health organization disputed those assertions, including the Food and Drug Administration: “The challenge we continue to face is the ongoing proliferation of misinformation and disinformation about these vaccines which results in vaccine hesitancy that lowers vaccine uptake,” said the FDA statement, adding that the agency “respectfully disagrees with the Florida Surgeon General’s opinion.”

    In his public comments, Ladapo makes clear he does not follow the guidance of government health experts who, in his view, don’t look at the full picture of how to tackle disease and improve public health. His agency did not respond to an Associated Press request for an interview.

    “It’s just this sea of insanity,” he said this week. “People are going to have to choose a side. People have a right to make their own decisions, informed decisions.”

    Ladapo’s focus on what he and DeSantis call “medical freedom” also fuels his skepticism about other long-established health policies, such as the FDA’s warning against consuming unpasteurized milk that can contain salmonella and other deadly bacteria, or the addition of fluoride in drinking water to promote healthy teeth.

    “At what point are you free to make your own decisions?” DeSantis said this week. “We’ve done a lot over the years to really be on the right side of fighting against the hysteria.”

    Ladapo has many critics in the public health realm and, increasingly, among politicians seeking to tie his unorthodox policies to DeSantis and other Republicans. U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Democrat from South Florida, wants Ladapo ousted.

    “Are we losing our minds? This is getting ridiculous and pathetic. Are we trying to kill millions of innocent children? Childhood vaccines save lives,” Wilson posted on social media this week. “Governor DeSantis must either remove Joseph Ladapo as Surgeon General or have him resign.”

    There’s no indication that will happen. Ladapo appears to have full support from DeSantis and many conservatives cheer his willingness to buck the medical establishment, including what some see as the untoward influence of pharmaceutical companies.

    “There are many brave people out there — moms & dads, doctors, scientists, and others — who have shown admirable courage in the fight for medical freedom,” Ladapo posted recently on the X social media platform. “Let’s continue. Much more work to be done.”

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  • Florida plans to end vaccine mandates statewide, including for schoolchildren

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    (CNN) — Florida will move to end all vaccine mandates in the state, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo announced Wednesday.

    The move would make Florida the first state to end a longstanding – and constitutionally upheld – practice of requiring certain vaccines for school students.

    The state health department will immediately move to end all non-statutory mandates in the state, Ladapo said at a news conference. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was also at the event, said state lawmakers would then look into developing a legislative package to end any remaining mandates.

    Ladapo said that every vaccine mandate “is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.”

    All 50 states have had school immunization requirements since the beginning of the 1980s, with incoming kindergartners needing shots to protect against diseases including measles, polio and tetanus. No states require a Covid-19 vaccine for schoolchildren.

    All states allow medical exemptions from these school vaccine mandates, and most also allow for exemptions due to personal or religious beliefs. Exemption rates have been on the rise for years in the US, with a record share of incoming kindergartners skipping the required shots in the 2024-25 school year.

    Florida’s school vaccine exemption rate last school year– about 5% – was higher than the national average, data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows, and nearly all were for nonmedical reasons.

    “We are concerned that today’s announcement will put children in Florida public schools at higher risk for getting sick, which will have a ripple effect across our communities,” Dr. Rana Alissa, president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement.

    “For many kids, the best part of school is being with friends – sharing space, playing on the playground, and learning together. Close contact makes it easy for contagious diseases to spread quickly,” she said. “When everyone in a school is vaccinated, it is harder for diseases to spread and easier for everyone to continue learning and having fun. When children are sick and miss school caregivers also miss work, which not only impacts those families but also the local economy.”

    A study published last year by the CDC estimated that routine childhood vaccinations – such as those included in school mandates – will have prevented about 508 million illnesses, 32 million hospitalizations and 1,129,000 deaths among children born between 1994 and 2003. They also were estimated to avert $540 billion in direct costs.

    Ladapo said that vaccination should be an individual choice.

    “People have a right to make their own decisions, informed decisions,” he said. “What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your god. I don’t have that right. Government does not have that right.”

    But experts say that freedom comes with responsibilities.

    “We’re all routinely subject to rules that enable us to live together safely, and I personally want those rules in place to protect me and the people I care about. We abide by speed limits, traffic lights, infant car seat and seatbelt laws – all requirements that have expanded over the years as safety technology and engineering has improved,” said Dr. Kelly Moore, president and CEO of immunize.org, a nonprofit organization focused on vaccine access.

    “I share with many other people the belief that all children who are required to attend school should also have a right to the best possible defense from vaccine-preventable diseases while they are there,” she said.

    Some vaccine mandates in Florida can be rolled back unilaterally by the state health department, Ladapo said, but others will require coordination with lawmakers.

    Experts who oppose the move to end vaccine mandates emphasize that the change is not final and that timing is critical.

    With the announcement coming after the start of the school year, Floridians will have a chance to experience and reflect on what a year of low vaccination coverage looks like, Moore said.

    “This timing gives leaders several months to reconsider whether this is what’s best for Florida families. It’s quite likely that Floridians will have reasons to regret that decision as time goes by and outbreaks disrupt learning,” she said.

    The American Medical Association “strongly opposes” the plan to end vaccine mandates, Dr. Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, an internal medicine physician and member of the professional organization’s board of trustees, said in a statement.

    “This unprecedented rollback would undermine decades of public health progress and place children and communities at increased risk for diseases such as measles, mumps, polio, and chickenpox resulting in serious illness, disability, and even death,” she said. “While there is still time, we urge Florida to reconsider this change to help prevent a rise of infectious disease outbreaks that put health and lives at risk.”

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    Deidre McPhillips, Shawn Nottingham and CNN

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  • Wisconsin’s GOP-led Legislature to block meningitis vaccine requirement for students

    Wisconsin’s GOP-led Legislature to block meningitis vaccine requirement for students

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    MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature on Wednesday plans to take the final step needed to stop Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ administration from requiring 7th graders to be vaccinated against meningitis.

    The state Senate and Assembly plan to take action that would block the proposal. There is no current meningitis vaccination requirement for Wisconsin students.

    The Legislature’s vote would also make it easier for parents to get an exemption from a chicken pox vaccine requirement that is in place for all K-6 students. Evers’ administration wanted to require parents seeking a chicken pox vaccination exemption to provide proof that their child has previously been infected.

    The Advisory Council on Immunization Practices — experts who advise the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — has recommended that students get vaccinated against meningitis since 2005.

    However, some parents complained at a public hearing that the proposed requirements violated their liberties. Health officials said they were trying to protect students’ health.

    Meningitis is an infection of the brain and spinal cord that can also cause blood infections. It can be deadly or cause lifelong disability. Rates of the disease have declined in the United States since the 1990s and remain low in Wisconsin and across the country, according to the CDC.

    Vaccines for both meningitis and chicken pox are widely used and have been proven to be safe and effective.

    In March, a Republican-led legislative committee voted to block the proposed policy changes, just as it did two years ago and despite the objections of Democrats and health officials. The Legislature’s vote Wednesday is the final step needed to stop enactment of the policy.

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