Anyone like me and at 66 have to wait until 70 for a shingles vacination?

This is what you do on the first day of retirement..... go through all your health and financial records, and refer to good old gransnet!
I am now 66, but I definitely haven't been offered the shingles jab.

Your GP can’t give you the jab, because their contract doesn’t allow them to go against the guidance, unless you have a chronic condition which is eligible. . I’m in the same position, and I agree it does seem a crazy system. Why they didn’t reduce the eligibility age on an annual basis and do 70 and 69 year olds in 20023/24, and then 69 and 68 years olds in 2224/25 and so on, instead of leaving out the people between 66 and 69 until they are 70 beats me. Let’s hope that the contract changes to allow us to have it before we are 70.

I requested (and got) the pneumonia jab earlier this year although other friends the same age were offered it automatically but they do have other health issues whereas I don’t.

When I asked about the shingles jab the nurse said I wasn’t eligible as I’m 68 but to check the Welsh health site around September as the guidelines are reviewed around then.

Well I had to wait another year in which time I had shingles. I went to the doctors after looking up the symptoms and said I had tried to get the vaccine just a few months before. He said well there has to be a cut off point. I was then offered the vaccine with the annual flu jab which I also took.

I’m in the group that has to wait until I’m 70. Call me a conspiracy theorist … but could this revised system be a cynical ploy by the government to make some people decide to have the vaccine privately This would mean fewer people taking it via the NHS and money in the pockets of the private medical providers!

Me too. It's ridiculous isn't it.

Grrr, 🤬 🤬, would you believe it, we were out for my birthday and Mother's Day yesterday and now DGS has chicken pox today! Nothing I can do about it, computer says no to jab.

I’m 69 and haven’t had the vaccination, I did enquire whilst seeing the nurse about asthma, but no I was told. Four weeks to my birthday and guess what I have shingles!

Someone gets paid shed loads to come with these ideas don’t you know.

My understanding is 80 year old's can't have it either.

I got my shingles jab at just over 60 but then I live in scotland where the nhs is doing this

Sorry guys I got my shingles jab at just over 60 but then I was in stroke recovery so it had to do with that and not where I luvedv

Live

I had my shingles (one jab only) at 70 so now at 79 going by other posts here, it’s no longer protecting me !!! I didn’t know that I was told it was for life.
(My friend had a very bad case of shingles in her face even though she had had the jab about a year before)

Believe it or not, I have been given an appointment for my second one at 9.05am on Easter Sunday!!!
Great timing.

I had mine at 70 five years ago. As far I knew everyone had it done at 70.

Suddenly this complicated list of different ages is confusing and irritating people because it seems so random.

This explains it.

Who will get the shingles vaccine

From 1 September 2023, the vaccine programme is being offered to the following:

healthy people aged 70 to 79 years who have not yet been vaccinated
people aged 50 years and over with a severely weakened immune system
healthy people aged 60 to 70 years will become eligible for the vaccine over the next 5 years, when they turn 65 or 70 years

I am 68 and received it because I am immunocompromised.

My wife and I had the two Shringrix injections last year. My wife is immunosuppressed so Shringrix was the only option for both of us as I didn't want to bring a live virus into our home.

We had our second doses after 2 months. Oddly, the NHS policy (second dose in the period 6 to 12 months) seems at odds with what is stated on the Gov.UK website:

Shingrix® requires a 2-dose schedule, with the second dose administered from 2 months (and ideally within 6 months) following the first dose. The 2 to 6 month bracket is also what is stated by the manufacturer and the American CDC.

There is a growing concern in the USA that many patients are not completing the course. My initial Shringrix jab left me out-of-action for 2 days, but with 90%+ protection compared to 51% for Zostavax protection having a second jab was a 'no brainer': yes, it did knock me out again.

One has to wonder whether the NHS will recall patients who have had Zostavax. This appears to be happening in the USA and many other countries?

I’m 65, have to wait til I’m 70!

Until recently we all had to wait til 70.

Yes silverlining, but now there is evidence that there is more benefit to administer it at 65, why don’t they gradually lower the age at which people get it rather than leave out those people between 65 and 69? It makes no sense.

I am guessing that starting vaccinating at 65 in the way that they are is the simplest method, the one that will take least planning and therefore be cheapest!

The alternative of vaccinating at 69 for a year, then at 68/69 etc. until they get down to 65 sounds a bit of a nightmare to me.

Supposing that people of 65 are likely to benefit just as much from the vaccine than the 66 - 69s, and the NHS either can't afford, or dont have the personel to vaccinate all 65 - 70 year olds in one year, (I don't know if that is the case), then it probably makes just as much sense to do the 'easiest' thing of doing people at 65.

But I can understand why people who have just missed out now annoyed. I would be too in that position.

I hadn’t known about the research mentioned, yes it is annoying missing out.
I wish I had retired after 2016 instead of before because there is a £50 pw more post 2016 with no plans to close the gap between the two pensions. It does make a big difference.
Sorry about going off subject but it’s been on my mind a bit today.

I was offered the vac a few days ago while in for a nurse appointment for bloods. I decided to go ahead and was then surprised I have to have a second go in around 6 months. It’s no longer the one-off live vaccine. Have had a few random aches and pains since then but not sure if they’re related to the jab. I’m 71.

My G.P. told me they didn’t have enough vaccine for everybody so two ages were chosen at random. No scientific reason at all.
More would be included when more vaccine was available.