There has been much concern following the statement by Prof Salisbury on BBC24 stating that the Oxford vaccine is a live vaccine and that it may not be suitable for patients with low immunity because it contains a live virus. To be clear - NONE of the three COVID vaccines licensed in the UK are considered to be live vaccines - the Oxford vaccine is NOT a live vaccine and the same applies to the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. The Oxford vaccine contains parts of the covid-19 virus to stimulate the immune response and that is delivered via an adenovirus vector. The adenovirus has been modified so that it cannot replicate and you cannot become ill from either the COVID-19 particles or the vector.
The worrying statement by Prof Salisbury and the concern that this has caused for blood cancer patients has been discussed by the leading CLL doctors in the UK and patient charities. Prof Salisbury has been contacted to clarify his statement and I have seen his response to these doctors and also to Prof Chris Whitty.
This is his reply: "I would like to clarify my position on the use of Pfizer or AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines for immunocompromised individuals after comments that I made on the BBC on 07 January 2021 - I fully support the use of either vaccine"
The latest Moderna vaccine which has been approved in the UK in the last few days is an mRNA vaccine, like the Pfizer one. It has been approved by the MHRA and is due to start being given to people from this Spring. The Moderna trial included 30,000 people, including 7,000 people over 65 with other conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. The results showed it was 94% effective in preventing disease. Like the other vaccines it is given in two doses, with the second dose recommended to be 28 days after the first. There are 4 more vaccines undergoing clinical trials at the moment each with significant populations of older people in the cohorts.
CLL patients often have a poor immune response to vaccinations but the COVID-19 vaccine could still offer a level of protection, and some protection is better than none because of the risk of becoming seriously ill from COVID-19.
It’s not possible to know at the moment if any one coronavirus vaccine is more effective than another for people with CLL and not enough people with CLL have had any vaccine yet to assess their responses.
If you are offered the vaccine, the advice is to have it as soon as possible, whichever vaccine you are offered.
Remember, because no one knows how well they will respond to the vaccine, even if you have been vaccinated it is wise to continue to be extremely cautious, limit your contacts, hand wash/sanitise frequently, keep your distance from others and wear a face covering.
There is more information about COVID-19 vaccines here from a CLL Support webinar on 21st December 2020
On another point I am concerned about comments from other members saying they wouldn’t have the vaccine ‘ even if they were paid ‘. I find comments like that unhelpful and perhaps this isn’t the place for anti vaccine options.
We try to keep the information on this site factual and where possible, fully referenced. People also post their experiences and thoughts, both for support of themselves and others, which is great. However, the admins will not allow scare stories based on fiction to be circulated here, whatever the subject.
Well done Jackie. I have contacted BBC about the error and supplied links to experts involved in the Vaccine developments who are unanimous in saying they are safe for us to use. Please also see last CLL Support webinar in december where the experts confirm they are safe.
I didn't want to mention you contacting the BBC without your permission but I'm glad you've mentioned it here.This is the Webinar for those that want to view it and I'll put it in the main post too
Thank you for posting this reassurance, I only originally posted the quote from Prof Sailsbury as I was shocked and was hoping someone with knowledge would clarify his comments with safe information.
This confirms that the vaccines are safe for the immunocompromised like us.
Recent posts have asked about how long should be the time between shots for different purposes. The advice here about administering the flu vaccine at the same time is to allow 7 days between the two. However they may be given together to avoid delay and the risk that the patient does not return. The advice to GPs in the NHS England Primary Care Bulletin on 7 January (Issue97) confirms that they can be administered at the same time.
The person to make Prof Salisbury's position clear with a very clear explanation behind the apparent U-turn really does need to be Prof Salisbury preferably in person on BBC television.
Why on earth did he make such a statement? And what exactly is Chris Witty's role in the apparent retraction?
I am by the way no anti-vaxer but I strongly support freedom of choice and transparancy.
With the possibility that only first doses will be given to increase the availability of the vaccines, what is your view on is only being able to get the first dose?
Personally, I think that it’s reasonable to try to vaccinate as many as possible with the first dose and extend the period before the second dose. I can’t remember which of the two initial vaccines it was but in one of them, during the trial there were various intervals between the two doses and it didn’t appear to make any difference to the response.
For lots of people to have some protection against covid, which, after one dose, will almost certainly reduce severe disease even if it doesn’t prevent it, must be better than having a small number of the population fully vaccinated.
I agree Jackie. I was supposed to have had my second dose by now and admit to feeling a little disappointed at first BUT I fully support the decision to give as many people as possible the first dose. We have to do all we can to stop more lives being lost and for that we need as many vaccinated as possible.Peggy
Thanks for making sure people see this, Jackie. I have read/ listened to all the experts about the vaccine ( I didn’t see Professor Salisbury), but everyone has said to get the vaccine ( any of them is safe) because even immune compromised patients usually have a system “ competent enough” to get protection against the disease, and protection from the first dose does not fade after a week, but more likely after months, and then second dose acts like a booster, maintaining protection for a longer period.I hope I have interpreted all that correctly.
Of course, we should still follow all the guidelines for quite some time and, hopefully, we will gradually see less and less people hospitalised.
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CLL responses to Pfizer’s Covid vaccines. 
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Britain is launching a study to examine whether patients with immunosuppressed conditions have a less effective immune response to Covid-19 
