Among the worst pain in medicine

Shingles is common and highly preventable. In the United States, 1 out of 3 people will get the disease in their lifetime, but the vaccine, called Shingrix, is 97 percent effective at preventing the disease in people ages 50 to 69 with healthy immune systems, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Paul Offit, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of Pennsylvania, said shingles is “one of the worst pains in medicine. It’s right up there with childbirth and corneal abrasions.”

You might think that people would be lining up to get a highly effective vaccine for a relatively common disease that can cause such pain, but that’s not the case. The CDC recommends two doses of Shingrix for everyone 50 and older, yet only 18.6 percent of people in the United States in this age group have received at least one dose, according to CDC data from 2021.