No, we don't all need to "get it eventually"

[Andy_L]

@Dr.Drake

Getting chicken pox twice is not “extremely rare.” I tried unsuccessfully to find actual statistics. Looking around online, there are loads of unsourced statements saying it’s extremely rare, and oceans of anecdata saying it’s not. Given my own experience, I suspect it’s not all that rare, because as far as I know my immune system is tip-top.

Does anyone with medical knowledge know how rare it is, precisely? If the analogy is going to be useful it would be good to know.

I found this paper from the Journal of the American Association of Pediatrics

https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/109/6/1068?sso=1&sso_redirect_count=1&nfstatus=401&nftoken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&nfstatusdescription=ERROR%3A+No+local+token

"Results. Among varicella cases reported to the surveillance project, 4.5% of cases in 1995 and 13.3% of cases in 1999 reported previous varicella. More than 95% of first infections were physician diagnosed, epidemiologically linked to another case, or had a rash description consistent with varicella; the same was true for reported second infections. People who reported reinfections were generally healthy. There was a family history of repeat infections in 45% of people who reported reinfections.

Conclusions. Clinical varicella reinfections may occur more commonly than previously thought. Additional studies of the predictive value of a positive varicella history and laboratory studies of reported reinfections are indicated to guide varicella vaccination policy."

This is a much higher number than I was expecting.