Shingles all the way

Okay, now there are stories that the vaccines are ‘causing infections with herpes’. Let’s start off with the prime fact here – this is impossible. Herpes viruses are an entirely separate group of viruses. None of the vaccines contain any live coronaviruses and herpes is not a coronavirus. Herpes is a DNA virus, not a RNA virus. It’s far more stable than coronavirus.

What the vaccines might be doing is triggering shingles (that’s what Herpes zoster is). You can’t catch shingles. No really, you can’t. This is a resurgence of a childhood disease called chicken pox. I had chicken pox so I’m always at risk of shingles (hasn’t happened so far, I’m happy to say). If you have never had chicken pox and you come into contact with someone who has shingles, you can catch chicken pox. You won’t get shingles until later.

Herpes viruses are sneaky little sods. Some of them cause little to no symptoms at all, few of them are actually dangerous but a lot of them can make your life really miserable for a while. I had chicken pox over 50 years ago and I can still smell the calamine lotion to this day. My parents painted me Barbie pink with that stuff. It wasn’t a cure – there really isn’t one – it was to stop it itching so I wouldn’t frantically try to rip my skin off. Bursting all those blisters could leave a lot of scars.

The shingles species is not the same as the oral or genital species (Herpes simplex types 1 and 2). It won’t blister your bits nor will it give you cold sores around your face. It’s the remnants of chicken pox.

Herpes can hide in your body after the immune system has shut down the initial infection. It can come back for an encore when you’re not at your best. Anyone who suffers cold sores knows this, the sores can come back time and again over the course of your life and then they disappear – but the virus hasn’t gone. It’s waiting for its next chance to cover your face in suppurating pustules and make you suffer. This is truly the virus from Hell. It doesn’t kill you, it subjects you to eternal torment because you never know when it’s going to pop back up again.

Okay, so why are some vaccinated people getting shingles? The herpes virus will wait until your immune system is at low ebb, and it’s clear that many vaccines will reduce your immune response to other things for a few days after injection. Heck, your immune system just had a massive invasion of something foreign. It’s really busy. It can’t deal with another infection right now.

You can’t catch shingles. If you get it, the virus was already there, probably for decades. Biding its time. Just waiting for your immune system to be at low ebb or massively distracted. Then it hits.

And then, when your immune system recovers and deals with it, it’s still not gone. It just retreats into the shadows until it sees another chance.

Herpes viruses are not that dangerous on the whole, although a few can potentially trigger cancers. They are enormously unpleasant though, you really don’t want to activate them if you can at all avoid it.

The vaccines might trigger a shingles outbreak in some people, but it cannot cause the infection for two reasons. First, it is an entirely separate group of viruses and second, you simply cannot catch shingles. You can’t be injected with shingles virus. It’s a chicken pox comeback tour, the virus has to already be in you.

Here’s some layman’s-terms information on herpes viruses.

And some more detailed info for those who managed to stay awake through my lectures.

I’m not making light of these viruses. They are really horrible things to experience, but considering some of the side effects reported for these new experimental vaccines, I’d say those who suffer with a bout of shingles are getting off reasonably lightly.

I doubt they’d agree with that, but at least they’re not blind or dead.