Vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 in participants without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infect

[bkoffman]

#CLLSociety Pfizer and BioNTech’s big news this week of a promising novel (not "live") “RNA” vaccine against COVID-19 set the CLL community abuzz with hope. Check out Dr. Brian Koffman's thoughts on this encouraging news! cllsociety.org/2020/11/vacc...

[Psmithuk]

Hopeful, but I worry if it has effects not yet seen.

[Jacksc06]

Thank you Brian. We can but live in hope.

[PaulaS Volunteer]

Brian, thanks for this. I'm certainly hoping to get a Covid vaccine as soon as it's recommended.

Do you know if not having a spleen makes any difference to the effectiveness of vaccines?

Paula

[maggiesgrandmom]

Hi Dr. Koffman, thanks as always.

I wonder if it is worth the risks knowing that we probably don't make the antibodies when stimulated by the antigen. Also since we don't make antibodies it is difficult to know if we have been previously exposed. I think my whole family had it in January/February before we knew about it. None of us tested positive for the antibody in May. But I think the antibody tests are very unreliable.

Also, I am wondering if there are other studies which point to severity of illness or high mortalites since the studies published in July. My CLL specialists didn't think they were as reliable as they should have been and he hasn't seen the same poor outcomes in his patients who have had Covid.

I am also wondering why CLL patients will have such bad outcomes when we don't make a strong antibody response to viruses. Aren't the people who are really doing poorly people who mount such a strong response that the response is what is killing them?

Thanks as always.

[bkoffman CLL CURE Hero in reply to maggiesgrandmom]

We need a strong immune response early to prevent the virus grabbing hold and spreading and an attenuated response later to prevent CRS.

[stewie]

Hi Maggie my consultant said the same few of his patients had recovered with out hospital admissions .

Just to let you know we do make antibodies but not has effective and much lower levels in some cases

Take care

Stewie

[bkoffman CLL CURE Hero in reply to stewie]

We just don't know how many mild and asymptomatic cases that there are.

[JigFettler Volunteer]

... not a “live” vaccine, but rather a novel “RNA” vaccine, it should be safe for chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients though that is yet to be proven...

Hi Brian

I am trying to decide IF I am going to be at the front of the queue. The above snipped from your website link.

The novelty factor focuses my mind. RNA - a first in vaccine.

How may I expect my CLL and FCR'd immune system to react.

I believe maybe only 1 in 5 of us will respond to a flu vaccine, in terms of generating an protective immune response. (Happy to be corrected).

I would urge our medical advisors to offer comment and evidence and rational for all of us CLLers.

An international discussion would be excellent. Perhaps one of the charities will do this or have already done so.

Meanwhile thank you for work, being so accessible and always relevant and keeping us uptodate and ahead of the curve.

Greetings from an Autumnal UK.

Jig

[bkoffman CLL CURE Hero in reply to JigFettler]

Working on the issue of how CLLers will do. I suspect the mRNA vaccine is safe, just is it effective.

[Justasheet1]

Jig,

I agree with you. That would be great but sadly the answer I expect to hear would be that they won’t know, just like with the Shingrix vaccine.

I got both of them without incident but my doc still has me on valacyclovir, not knowing if it will work and not risking getting shingles.

This will prove out over time but there’s no time to waste. I expect that I will get the vaccine sooner than later but still mask and distance for a long time.

Jeff

[bkoffman CLL CURE Hero in reply to Justasheet1]

Little down side I suspect, but don't burn your masks quite yet.

[bennevisplace]

Thanks Brian. From the protocol 5.2 it looks like immunocompromised individuals were excluded from the study. So no blood cancer patients I guess?

[bkoffman CLL CURE Hero in reply to bennevisplace]

I think you are right. I misread it and thought they were only excluded from the phase 1.

[Jonquiljo]

A vaccine that has shown 90+% effectiveness is quite a remarkable achievement. I don’t see any reason to wait other than to see if any other company’s vaccine could be better.

Storage at -70 deg C is not ideal. People who have handled purified RNA before will not have a problem — but most people handling it will be medical and pharmaceutical staff. They don’t have the necessary experience.

I still don’t feel that this need deter anyone from getting vaccinated. CLL patients are a heterogeneous group - and any reaction and effectiveness is likely variable too. Then again .... contracting COVID is likely a lot worse.

[bkoffman CLL CURE Hero]

Fully agree.