I suspect the OP is exaggerating the "no possibility" bit; the question itself says later "there's little to no chance of infection to anyone else" which is much closer to what an actual medical professional would say.

"You do not belong at any physical workplace. Because you are not safe for others." - I don't think that is a reasonable medical opinion. I have an elderly relative with shingles - she never stops complaining about its symptoms - but it is apparently a lifelong condition which she has had since middle age, and does not require any isolation. Seemingly nobody else has "caught" it, whether amongst family or friends.

@Steve Yeah, there is a reason we don't get medical advice from elderly relatives any more. You cannot "have" shingles for that long. You can retain long term damage from your shingles you once had, even when it's done. And instead of explaining that every single time, you'd just say "shingles". Fair. That is what your relative probably had.

@nvoigt: Unfortunately society doesn’t treat infectious diseases as seriously as you suggest. Even after the COVID19 lockdowns many people still think it’s okay to go out among people while infectious and society more or less accepts it. Some people even still think you “catch” a cold while in fact you get infected by someone else.

@Michael, I think that's because we can't all reasonably take to bed every time we are a little throaty, and these things will circulate anyway. Our immune systems (and to some extent practices embedded in patterns of life, such as geographic separation of communities which slows contagion) exist to bear the burden, not individual decisions to isolate from daily life and subjective impressions of illness.

Well, both CDC and NHS say chicken pox is highly contagious and dangerous to pregnant, old and vulnerable people and carriers should neither go to work nor school with it. So saying shingles isn't that contagious, because it can "only" transmit chicken pox is true... and at the same time a totally weird way of saying "stay the hell at home with it". The fact that chicken pox exists isn't due to the fact that we just tell people "it's okay go spread", it's due to the fact that not everybody is a perfectly omniscient medical expert and people have chicken pox before they know it's chicken pox.

@nvoigt The NHS does not say you should not go to work with it. It says "Stay off work or school if the rash is still oozing fluid (weeping) and cannot be covered, or until the rash has dried out." nhs.uk/conditions/shingles . Unless I'm mistaken that is very different from "don't go to work"

This answer is essentially saying that your medical advice is superior to the advice OP got from their doctor: " doctor has advised me I can return to work as long as the area is covered". I'm not a doctor, I have no idea who is correct here but blaming OP for following the advice of their doctor seems massively out of place, even in cases where the doctors advice is wrong.

"Just to make this abundantly clear to you: you decided, that going into public and risking other pregnants people's unborn life is your decision to make and that people that are uncomfortable with danger to their health or their babies embarass you? That you are somehow the victim here?" This is simply not true. OP believed on the basis of their doctor's advice that they were not a risk to anybody else. That is not the same as deciding they get to risk others' health.

I feel like if you're going to so strongly assert that a medical professional is wrong, you should at least have references to back it up. All the sources I'm skimming actually echo what the doctor said, to cover the area, wash your hands, and avoid contact with your sores. For respiratory viruses, the CDC explicitly suggests you stay at home until symptoms are gone, whereas for shingles it just discusses the steps the doctors told OP, and to "avoid contact with immunocompromised" or "pregnant women who have never had chickenpox or the vaccine", but not to stay home.

-1 for shaming OP for doing the right thing: following the Doc's advice and guidelines. As you wrote in your last paragraph yourself: this is just a rant, not an answer.

@JMac I have first hand experience with it and what it can do to vulnerable people. That is enough for me. Staying at home resting is safer for others and the correct way to cure it for the OP. Do you really think the people that brought you the opiod crisis are in a position to tell you how to cure something properly? By popping pills like there is no tomorrow and going back to work, despite the danger to you and others? I think there have been enough dead people by now that this kind of thinking should have been abolished. Paid sick leave is the proper way to cure a disease.

Listening to medical professionals is the proper way to cure a disease. The NHS has not brought on an opiod crisis in the UK, so I'm not sure what relevance that has here.

I am an adult who has never had chicken pox. Every doctor I've told this to has assured me (without any testing) that I did have chicken pox; I and/or my parents just didn't notice. The prevailing medical opinion seems to be that chicken pox was universal in the 1950-1970 timeframe. Regardless, I got the Varivax shot as soon as it was available.

@nvoigt If I had to choose between listening to "the people who brought me the opioid crisis" (which you conveniently left out, are also trained on human health conditions for years along with all their practical experience) or someone with "first hand experience" posting to the Workplace SE site without references, I'm going to pick the doctor. And its concerning to me that you're suggesting the opposite is more reasonable. Thinking you know better than medical professionals is exactly what the anti-vaxers did.

I don't say I know better than "all the professionals". I say that according to my own experience and the hospital staff and doctors that I met along the way (which I trust to be educated on their own job) patients with shingles should stay home on paid sick leave to properly recover. If your health care system says they should pop some pills, grit their teeth and put on an even higher stress level detriment to their own recovery, that is one shitty system and I am sorry.

If you think that a "little risk" is worth it, your perspective might change if that "litttle risk" fucks up one of your loved ones. Little risk in this case doesn't mean someone get's a little sick once in a while. It means it's rare, but if it happens then it really destroys a life. All so some poor sod in pain could be exploited in their job a little more.

@nvoigt Surely if thats what the professionals have told you, you can find a source then, and use it in your answer. It seems like that would be a lot more reasonable than just taking your word that OP's healthcare professional is wrong. Without a source, theres really no good reason for anyone to take this answer seriously, if their doctor gives them conflicting information. I also didnt say "all" healthcare professionals, but again, given their credentials, I think it's reasonable to trust a healthcare professional over an unsourced SE answer, unless the specific Dr. is known to be wrong.

But given that OP didnt mention who their doctor is, and you provided no backup, why the fuck should they listen to you?

What do you think the "conflicting" information is exactly? If you asked the doctor what the optimal treatment, with the lowest risk is, do you really think they would say anything else than "rest at home and don't meet people"? The only reason they are at work is that "optimal treatment" is not the top priority in capitalistic societies. A little pain, a little risk, is acceptable if it means the worker can be exploited properly. From a purely medical point of view, I challenge you to find even a hint that what the doctor prescribed would not work better with rest at home.

And as far as listening to me goes... I think someone with shingles knows damn well what I am talking about, I don't need to do any convincing to them. That shit is not funny. They will know exactly that rest would be better for them, I have no doubt about that.

@nvoigt I'm not sure why you keep trying to put this back to capitalism and the opioid crisis. OP never even gave a location, nor did they mention any of those things. You keep insisting things you claim healthcare professionals will say, but refuse to give any of the most basic sources. You can try to claim it's common sense or whatever, but if you're going to call a medical professional wrong, you should really back it up with more than personal assertions.

Tell me again, for what do you want me to post sources? That rest helps patient recovery better than going to work in pain? Or that not exposing people to a risk reduces said risk of exposure? Do you have a doctor on file that says rest would not help? Or risk does not matter? Because even the OP is not claiming that.

@nvoigt I think you should post sources because "it's common sense, the medical professional is wrong, but I won't provide sources" is the exact Joe Rogan style 'science' that leads to BS like vaccine denial.

I agree, not all doctors are created equal. If you look back at your own class, you will realise that half of them were idiots. Its the same with any profession. Whenever I move to a new area I have to hunt for a good doctor. Just because the OP says verbally that his doctor says verbally, about ehat he has and what the dangers are to others, doesnt make it true.