I'm 48, in the US, and had chicken pox as a child.
After my 43 y/o sister-in-law had a debilitating shingles outbreak last year I asked my PCP about the vaccine. He stated that he was wary to prescribe it to be. His reasoning was something like:
There was a previous shingles vaccine that didn't work very well. It was found that it didn't offer long-term protection and the protection could not be improved with a booster. The current vaccine is still new and the long-term protection and ability to be extended by a booster are unknown. Since most of the worst outcomes of shingles correlate to old age it makes sense to defer the vaccination hedging against the failure of the vaccine to provide long-term protection and to allow more time to elapse to learn more about how the vaccine works long-term.
Edit: My PCP's general advice was to defer the vaccination as long as possible. He felt that 60 was reasonable.
I haven't looked into the veracity of any of his reasoning, but I am willing defer to his expertise and bide my time. My sister-in-law had a really bad experience, and I remember my grandfather having a terrible experience when I was a child. I'm definitely fearful and would like to prevent it.
I didn't mean to imply my choice was good or bad and to make any value judgement about your circumstances. I'm sorry if it seemed that way.
The age restriction seems obnoxious to me, too. I'd love to gather criticisms of this reasoning with citations that I can take to my PCP. It gives me the willies rolling the dice with this. I would much rather get the vaccination now but I also see his point. (I'm entirely too much the layman to go out looking for studies about the long-term protection of this current vaccine.)
re: the delta - He was advising me to defer the vaccination as long as possible. I'll edit my note to reflect that. Quibbling about a year is silly. He advised waiting until at least 60.
After my 43 y/o sister-in-law had a debilitating shingles outbreak last year I asked my PCP about the vaccine. He stated that he was wary to prescribe it to be. His reasoning was something like:
There was a previous shingles vaccine that didn't work very well. It was found that it didn't offer long-term protection and the protection could not be improved with a booster. The current vaccine is still new and the long-term protection and ability to be extended by a booster are unknown. Since most of the worst outcomes of shingles correlate to old age it makes sense to defer the vaccination hedging against the failure of the vaccine to provide long-term protection and to allow more time to elapse to learn more about how the vaccine works long-term.
Edit: My PCP's general advice was to defer the vaccination as long as possible. He felt that 60 was reasonable.
I haven't looked into the veracity of any of his reasoning, but I am willing defer to his expertise and bide my time. My sister-in-law had a really bad experience, and I remember my grandfather having a terrible experience when I was a child. I'm definitely fearful and would like to prevent it.