Hello CLL group, how are you after such a long time. I feel fine after 4 years on ibrutinib, so in that sense, that are good news for 17p CLL patients. In this case I would like to ask you if anyone here know if there is any scientific information about the aviability of the vaccines against covid with CLL. In particular, I´m interested in Astrazeneca and Pfizer vaccines.
Greetings.
Clara.
Hi Clara, I guess the availability will be different from country to country, depending how the government rolls out the doses and which groups of the population will be vaccinated first. Usability will wary from person to person with CLL depending from the state of one's immune system and your doctor should be asked for advice whether to get vaccinated or not. There were a couple posts recently explaining the specifics of the vaccines that are coming out shortly, including how they work.
Hello Clara, It's good to hear from you. Glad you're doing well after 5 years on Ibrutinib.
A lot of questions have been asked about Covid vaccines on this site, but a lot is still unclear about effectiveness as well as availability. Research has been hurried through more quickly than usual and the situation seems to change very frequently.
As LeoPa has said, there are many variables involved - different countries, different governments, different illnesses, different degrees of CLL, different ages of people. As well as different ways the various vaccines work and need to be stored.
We're all looking for clear scientific information on these matters, but it's taking time to get sorted out. If you keep an eye open for new posts about Covid vaccines on this site, hopefully you will see when the latest scientific evidence comes out. Here is the latest post from JigFettler , where he also gives some further interesting links. healthunlocked.com/cllsuppo...
Best wishes,
Paula
There's just no data from clinical trials on how CLL or other immunocompromised patients respond to the new vaccines. Though older people, whose immune systems are expected to be somewhat weak, did appear to benefit from the RNA vaccines.
If you do get vaccinated against Covid there will be no risk it gives you the disease, the question is whether it gives you good protection. That depends on your immune system making enough antibodies. Some of us will not be able to do that. Ibrutinib treatment has been shown to help restore the immune system's function, especially T cells. If your B cells are now in the normal range and stable, there is every chance that your response to vaccine will be reasonably good. But best to ask your consultant.
Immunocompromised people who don't respond to vaccination may be able to get protection by being injected with synthetic antibodies, which are now being trialled.
I was watching the webinar on the Zoe Covid App and the proffesor who was answering questions said at least twice possibly 3 times that the Astra Zennica vaccine was Live, I didn't think it was. If that's true it rules that one out for us CLLers. As anyone else heard this? Stay Safe everyone x
I think the Chinese vaccine is a possibility, since it is made with inactivated viruses, just like the flu vaccine.
Astrazeneca's vaccine attaches genetic code to make the spike protein of the SARS-COV2 virus to a different virus harmless to humans, a deactivated 'common cold' adenovirus that affects chimpanzees. AZ says this vector virus can't replicate, so it would appear to be incapable of giving a viral infection to the recipient, immunocompromised or not.
See also AussieNeil's reply to this post healthunlocked.com/cllsuppo...
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