What are the side effects of the varicella vaccine?
The side effects are the same effects that the wild virus has, because it is a weakened version of the wild virus. Rarely, you can get a mild rash, like chickenpox, or any of the complications of chickenpox. But those occur very, very rarely. Why does the vaccine fail in some people? The vaccine does not provide 100 percent protection against disease. The vaccine provides about 85 percent protection against all disease and close to 100 percent protection against severe disease. The one or two out of every 10 who might come down with varicella after the vaccination most commonly get mild illness. Nevertheless, that can still transmit to others and cause some small outbreaks. To try to decrease that is why the second dose was recommended. We’re not reporting in this review the effect of the second dose yet. There hasn’t been enough time. We would anticipate that it would have a further effect in decreasing the incidence. We’ll have to see. The varicella vaccine is a relative bargain, rig
