Covid & Shingles is there a link?

It still angers me that the WHO didn’t acknowledge that the virus was airborne for so long and even our scientific advisors said masks wouldn’t work. Of course, the masks we used at the beginning wouldn’t have worked against omicron but, imo when they were eventually introduced they saved lives. We took every precaution possible from early 2020 and continued to disinfect our shopping till quite recently and we’ve never stopped using masks. I went into a marquee at a craft fair a few weeks ago and didn’t wear a mask and was furious with myself for doing so. It wasn’t even a very good craft fair. Thankfully I was ok. What I have noticed is that, on my nightly walk up the village it was always me that walked into the road to avoid being too close to people walking back from the pub ( the path is quite narrow and the road has very fast traffic on it at times) but over the past few months everyone else moves into the road. This is a definite cultural change that I think will remain so for the foreseeable future. Although I’m no longer concerned about walking past people in the open air!

maddyone

Oh thank you growstuff for that information, it’s nice to have confirmation from your partner who is qualified to speak about the ability of the virus to survive on surfaces.
When I remember the various news reports I saw during the height of the pandemic about how the virus could survive, sometimes for days, on various surfaces, I begin to think there was a lot of scaremongering going on. The virus was serious for those of us who caught it then, without scaremongering going on to terrify us. When I think how we used to wipe all our shopping with a bleach solution and how ridiculous that was, and I caught the virus and was hospitalised anyway. I caught it from my elderly mother who had picked it up in hospital after a fall, and we were in a bubble with her at that time, and there were we, ridiculously wiping the shopping down for nothing.

That was me, too, maddyone. Shopping, door handles, car steering wheel and door handles - everywhere stank of hypochlorite!

Then I read some research in which it was attempted to culture the virus from an 'infected' surface and it couldn't be done...

That was a very sensible thing to do growstuff. I have have two friends who are being treated for cancer at the moment, but I always test before going to see them. I tested yesterday too, as I was going to get my new implant fitted (hurray, the tooth I lost pre Covid is now replaced and I have a full set of teeth again.) There was no requirement to test, but I consider it a curtesy to test before such treatment takes place.
Like your partner, we didn’t wear masks last month for my mother’s funeral. We would have have had to remove them in order to eat at the wake anyway and so it seemed pointless. Anyway I was very upset at the church and wouldn’t have been able to wipe my eyes and nose properly with a mask on. Luckily no one got Covid after the funeral.

You're welcome *maddyone. Despite knowing how viruses work, my idiotic partner still managed to catch Covid. His son had been to a family wedding, where nobody wore masks because they all "knew" each other. Fortunately, my partner and I don't live together and he was symptomatic before we were due to see each other. It was just before I was due to have cancer surgery, so I cocooned myself at home for a few days and tested myself every day - I escaped, thank goodness!

Thank you also Farmor for the information about shingles. The best protection therefore is obviously to get the vaccination when it’s offered.

Oh thank you growstuff for that information, it’s nice to have confirmation from your partner who is qualified to speak about the ability of the virus to survive on surfaces.
When I remember the various news reports I saw during the height of the pandemic about how the virus could survive, sometimes for days, on various surfaces, I begin to think there was a lot of scaremongering going on. The virus was serious for those of us who caught it then, without scaremongering going on to terrify us. When I think how we used to wipe all our shopping with a bleach solution and how ridiculous that was, and I caught the virus and was hospitalised anyway. I caught it from my elderly mother who had picked it up in hospital after a fall, and we were in a bubble with her at that time, and there were we, ridiculously wiping the shopping down for nothing.

Well I've got a cold which I am assuming that I picked up in A and E on Saturday. I have tested negative and still carer for DH who not only has shingles but other health issues. I did wear a mask most of the time.......

maddyone I do the same with my FFP2 masks and haven't had Covid so far (that I know about).

Your son is correct. Strictly speaking, viruses aren't even alive. They need a host to latch on to and if they don't have one, they become "deactivated".

It would be possible for somebody to sneeze on their hand, touch a surface and for somebody else to touch the same surface and wipe their nose, mouth or eyes almost immediately and the virus might spread.

Unless somebody sneezes or coughs directly on to your mask, it's unlikely to be contaminated. Any bacteria on it are likely to have come from you (the wearer) and would be no worse than the bacteria on a scarf or collar - and I doubt if you wash or throw away your scarves and coats every time you wear them.

The above is a potted version of something my partner told me - he does research on virus spike proteins.

Namsnanny

Shinamae I did a little experiment and didnt take them for about a month. I was a perfectly normal human being.
When I resumed, I sounded like the brass section of the orchestra.
Tromboning all over the place.
They say it gets better, but I have no evidence of that!

Well at least I know what it is now, thank you. I can’t even wee without releasing some gas ??…?‍♀️

maddyone

Could it be that there’s quite a lot of chicken pox/shingles about and that’s why people are getting shingles? There certainly was a lot of chicken pox around in the summer, maybe there still is.

No - you can't get shingles from someone else with shingles or chickenpox. Only get it "from yourself" as virus lies dormant in the body after a chickenpox infection which may have been many years earlier.
However, a person who never had chickenpox could be infected by a person with shingles.
If all children were vaccinated against chickenpox, they would also be protected against shingles.

Shinamae I did a little experiment and didnt take them for about a month. I was a perfectly normal human being.
When I resumed, I sounded like the brass section of the orchestra.
Tromboning all over the place.
They say it gets better, but I have no evidence of that!

Could it be that there’s quite a lot of chicken pox/shingles about and that’s why people are getting shingles? There certainly was a lot of chicken pox around in the summer, maybe there still is.

Morning Maybee, you ask how often I use my ffp2 masks. Like you I do repeat wear if I’ve not worn them long. I have two or three in the car and rotate them. As you say, they ‘rest’ in between uses and any virus cannot live long on them, if indeed it lives at all as it is an airborne virus. My son recently told me that it has been shown now that the virus isn’t transmitted by touch and it dies very soon after landing on a surface. I don’t know if this is the case as there was a lot of hype at the beginning where it was suggested that the virus could stay viable for days on various surfaces. I’m not a scientist and neither is he, but he’d seen this somewhere and told me. Nonetheless, I still use rather a lot of hand gel (I carry a bottle in my bag) and always wash my hands immediately after arriving home and after again after unpacking any shopping. If I wear a mask for longer, such as on a flight, I cut the tapes and dispose of it after use. I sometimes wear a blue mask but not usually. I dispose of those after use. Hope that helps.

Namsnanny

??dont they just

Is that what it is? I have an actimal drink in the morning and a probiotic capsule at night and suffer dreadfully with aforementioned problem ????..

??dont they just

I think all we can do is have every vaccine that’s offered to us and try to boost our immune system by eating well and trying to get some fresh air and exercise. I’m taking pre biotics and pro biotics as well even though they give me terrible wind ( I blame Tim Spector for that…)

Could be Daisymae or it could be proven that there is a link. It's probably too early to call definitively but there's certainly grounds for some solid meta analysis studies to clarify any connection rather than categorise any doubts as scaremongering to put off the wary from having a covid vaccination...we would never move forward on anything if we all accepted the flat earth way of looking at things.

Sincerely wish your husband as speedy a recovery as possible and look forward to some clarity on a possible link - or not - as you first posited.

My husband ended up in hospital over the weekend, he spent Saturday in A and E having collapsed. I spoke to my husband's specialist nurse today and she has also had shingles recently. I asked her how long between the infection and the booster and she wasn't sure but is going to look it up. Obviously could be total coincidence.

Lady next door to me doesn’t go out much bless her. She went last week for covid booster and flu jab and now she has shingles. I’m worried that will happen to me when I get mine!

Don't be so quick to judge or dismiss as rubbish a possible causal link between the covid vaccine and shingles.

I don't think anyone has done that. Don't be so quick to misunderstand what people write.

I am surprised that my surgery phoned me up to advise me to have a shingles vaccine given that, apart from the first covid jab they’ve never phoned me up to remind me about having a vaccine before. I’ll ask the nurse when I have my pneumonia jab next week if more people than usual are getting shingles. I still think about what my doctor said ‘get out and about and mix with people because that will strengthen your immune system’ because so many of us haven’t been doing that for 2 1/2 years. At the end of the day everything is linked in one way or another and everyone is different. Tim Spector says the way forward is away from a one treatment fits all health system but when your dealing with a world pandemic you can’t really do that can you?

Well, it may just be coincidence or it may be that I'm just bloody unlucky but a week after having my second covid vaccination I developed the most horrendous dose of shingles causing severe nerve damage and subsequent neuralgia (PHN) from my hairline down to my elbow on my right arm - I'd post a picture but I don't want to put people off their tea - with debilitating fatigue and constant flu like shivering/temperature fluctuations.

Don't be so quick to judge or dismiss as rubbish a possible causal link between the covid vaccine and shingles. There may not have been any peer reviewed papers published on this to date but in my long covid support group there are many anecdotal examples of developing shingles very shortly after the vaccine including my own. Just because it's not happened to you doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

I feel for your husband Daisymae, it's a horrible condition with severe, long lasting effects in some cases and should be taken more seriously especially in the over 70's demographic.

How much use do you get out of a FFP2 mask? Sometimes we’ll only wear one to pop into a garage to pay for petrol so keep it in the car and use it again two weeks later ( assuming any virus wouldn’t live for 2 weeks and we wouldn’t have been anywhere else in the meantime?). If I was eg at a cinema for several hours or if I’d been shopping for an hour or so in a supermarket it would go straight in the bin. I’d happily use and throw away the blue masks even if I’d used one for a few minutes but they don’t really protect against omicron.

I don’t think it’s silly or over protective to take reasonable precautions with the Covid virus. I still wear a mask when shopping. Today in Sainsburys there was only one other person wearing a mask. I wear the ffp2 mask because it protects me. I’ve just returned from Greece (Corfu) and myself and my husband were the only two wearing masks on the aeroplane and in the queues at the airport. I do go to the cinema, every school holiday I take my grandson (he’s already chosen the film he wants to see at half term.) I will be wearing a mask though. I go to restaurants sometimes, we associate freely with our family, including at my mum’s funeral, and we don’t wear masks for that. Nor for the funeral. We’re going to New Zealand for two months this winter and I’ll be wearing a mask on the planes and in the airports (except when eating.) So like you Maybee I’m careful, but trying to live a normal life. We haven’t been to concerts or theatres which I miss as we did that a lot before Covid. But we’ve travelled on aeroplanes every year, eaten in restaurants, been to hotels and stayed or had meals. Our daughter and her family came home from New Zealand for a visit this summer without a Covid incident. Covid will probably be with us forever and we need to stay safe but negotiate ways to live normally within that safeness.

You're welcome MayBee70.