When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March of 2020, no one seemed to care about anything else, and rightfully so, I suppose. The race to a vaccine and then to vaccinate against the novel coronavirus was on.

Soon after folks were "double-jabbed" with either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, (Johnson & Johnson a single shot), some were still getting infected with SARS-CoV-2, a "breakthrough case" they called it.

Well, soon after that, breakthrough cases were ubiquitous. Was it due to the mRNA "style" of the vaccine? Were variants emerging too quickly? Scientists still don't quite know yet.

When I was a child growing up in the '80s, we all got chickenpox. The fever, the red bumps that mom and dad put calamine lotion all over, you remember, right?

In 1995, a Varicella (Chickenpox) vaccine, was approved for the highly contagious virus.

Most cases of chickenpox are relatively mild and run their course in five to 10 days. But it can be very serious, even life-threatening, in a small percentage of people. Before the varicella vaccine was licensed in the U.S. in 1995, there were approximately 100 deaths and more than 11,000 hospitalizations a year from chickenpox. -webmd.com

On Saturday, 4-year-old Zalla Morgan and her dad from the Worcester, MA area were leaving their soccer game when her dad was putting her hair into a ponytail only to find three red spots on her hairline. The next day, three or four more showed up on her back, according to Morgan's mom, Brittany.

A trip to the pediatrician resulted in a positive test for chickenpox. Chickenpox? Is that still around? I know folks suffering from shingles remember it...

Similar to the Measles and/or Polio vaccines, the Varicella vaccine has kept the virus at bay, if not completely gone within the states.

SO, JUST HOW RARE IS A BREAKTHROUGH CASE OF CHICKENPOX? SHOULD PARENTS BE WORRIED?

Currently, approximately 1 in 10 vaccinated children may develop mild breakthrough disease following exposure to chickenpox. Rashes, usually vesicular, account for more than half of all reports. -ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

So, 1 in 10 or 10% isn't super rare; however, most breakthrough cases are mild, thankfully.

Morgan's pediatrician said, "it's the first case she has seen in years".