Vaccine Response

[Davidcara]

Wonder if there will ever be a recommendation, for those who do not respond to first two covid vaccines to get a third dose.

[HopeME]

You are way ahead of me with your thinking. I hadn’t contemplated what the options are if the two shot sequence doesn’t work. Why would you assume a third shot would work if the first two hadn’t?

[cajunjeff]

I would start my answer by asking you to define what you mean by “those who do not respond”. Your question is phrased in a way to infer that vaccines either work or do not work, with no in between. I don’t think that’s the way it works. A 75% effective vaccine means 75% of the people who took the vaccine were immune from covid but tells us very little about whether the 25% still had any varying degrees of at least getting some partial protection.

I suppose if antibody testing gets more reliable, we can find out among the 25% who got covid, who had some degree of antibody protection.

My guess is that if you can definitely show someone got partial, but not full, protection from the first two shots, a third shot could help. If someone tests negative for antibodies after the first two shots, a third shot probably will not change that.

Will our antibody testing ever be refined and reliable enough to distinguish among partial protection cases? Who knows? If the antibody test for first two is inconclusive, get a third test. It might help, I can’t see much downside.

[Davidcara in reply to cajunjeff]

Yes, I am talking about no antibodies, or less than desired antibodies after completing the two injection protocol. Just something I have been thinking about

[Jm954 Administrator]

Good question and I would agree with cajunjeff regarding likely antibody responses.

Not making antodies is a worry for most CLL patients.However, I see you are in the USA and you generally have very low antibody levels so if tests show that you had no antibodies after the vaccine, it might be worth asking about AZD7442, the monoclonal covid antibodies used in the PROVENT study. They are thought to protect against covid for up to a year, although the trial is ongoing to determine effectiveness, there may be a centre near you.

Here's a link to the PROVENT information: PROVENT Study will research a combination of 2 investigational monoclonal antibodies for the prevention of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).

Jackie

[SlowCLL]

Moderna is reported to be developing a third booster shot, so they probably think a third shot may be helpful, perhaps even necessary for new Covid-19 strains.