"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."
"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."
Varicella-zoster virus remains latent in most people and can reactivate later as shingles after causing chickenpox. Vaccines protect against both chickenpox and shingles. A claim circulated that widespread chickenpox vaccination in California halted chickenpox but later caused shingles epidemics, yet current research does not show increased shingles cases linked to childhood chickenpox vaccination programs in the United States. Chickenpox is highly contagious, causes fever, headache, fatigue and an itchy blistering rash, and spreads through direct contact or respiratory droplets. Children receive a two-dose chickenpox vaccine series, recommended at 12–15 months and again at 4–6 years.
Read at Poynter
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