How Shingles Helped Me Understand the Limits of the Covid Virus Vaccine
I had shingles last summer. At first I dismissed the maddening itching and the red bumps appearing on my skin as really bad mosquito bites. I’d had my shingles vaccines--both shots—earlier in the year so assumed it couldn’t be shingles. It was August in Maine and as Covid interrupted summer social life I was spending most evenings outside on porches—easy prey for hungry black flies and mosquitos.
But after a few days of major league suffering I succumbed to good sense and called my dermatologist who—thanks to the wonders of telemedicine--diagnosed shingles. When I told her—skepticism evident I suspect— that I’d had both of my shots, she reminded me that, “the shingles vaccine protects us up to 90 or 95% and moderates the impact of the virus, but does not provide 100% protection. Any number of factors can give life to the dormant virus,” she said, "including insufficient sleep or stress."
She prescribed medication and I began to recover. But it was not immediate and though I did not suffer the hell of the damned that friends and family--who had not gotten the shots—endured, it was unpleasant enough. The pills were the size of my thumb and had to be taken 3 times a day for 10 days. I took two weeks medical leave from work and found myself too tired to enjoy much of the rest of those warm summer nights. Still, within a month I was recovering and putting the experience behind me. And I became a serious advocate for the shingles vaccine, reminding friends that if they had not yet had both shots to not waste time: shingles are a risk even when you have the vaccine and do everything ‘right.’
So this NYT headline: Vaccine development exceeded everyone’s expectations. But doctors still have woefully few drugs to treat sick patients immediately made sense to me; even with both Covid 19 shots, risk is still part of our daily lives.
In the summer of 2020 I was stressed. I had taken an executive position in a well known company just seven months earlier and had buyer's remorse. After working for myself for 30+ years I was working for a Fortune 100 company and not adapting well. Though clearly understood my internal conflict, my brain could not entertain leaving the situation. Stressed and tired, my immune system rebelled and the shingles virus emerged.
My advantages in the situation were not trivial: self-awareness that something worse than really bad mosquito bites was afflicting me; an expert dermatologist on speed dial; telemedicine that enabled me to consult with that dermatologist; the development of medications that reversed the effects of the virus in a fairly short period of time, health insurance that gave me access to the doctor and the meds, and the ability to take time off, combined to help me recover in a timely fashion.
I’m relatively healthy and don’t suffer colds and flus often. That shingles made it past my defenses—even with the vaccines—was data: I had to rethink the decisions I'd made and plot a new path ahead. More on that story another day! For now, I share my experience to echo Dr. Fauci: the new Covid vaccines are a huge breakthrough—they protect us (most of the time) up to 90-95%. But on their own, they will not be enough.
When a relatively mild version of shingles emerged I had the advantage of having access to a drug that reversed the course of the virus and aided my recovery in relatively short order. Similar drugs have not yet been developed for Covid treatment. Even if, post vaccine, you get just a mild version of Covid, you're vulnerable. For now, the substitutes are vigilance, masking, rest, keeping our stress levels down, our veggie loads up, and mutuality: caring for one another and not putting each other at risk.
We will get through this; new treatments are being developed. New social behaviors are becoming normalized. We are all developing greater self-awareness. But get your vaccines and remember 95% effectiveness is not 100%. Stay well, enjoy your days; the pandemic is teaching us a lot.