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

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-we-dont-all-need-to-get-it-eventually/851344>\
**Category:** The Quarantine Zone\
**Tags:** covid-quarantine\
**Created:** [April 8, 2020, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-we-dont-all-need-to-get-it-eventually/851344 "2020-04-08T14:34:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 62

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**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-we-dont-all-need-to-get-it-eventually/851344/62 "2020-04-10T00:46:49Z")

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> [@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](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.

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