Had my vaccine yesterday. I’m on W&W since I was diagnosed February 2020. I feel no one seems to know how much protection we CLLers have????

[Pekingese]

I had the Oxford vaccine, I have had no side effects which I’m surprised as I normally have a bad reaction to the flu jab painful arm and swollen. I asked the nurse if it would give me any protection with having CLL she said you should have some protection? Any one else have a reaction to the Oxford vaccine?

[Newdawn Administrator]

The truth is nobody does actually know with any certainty Pekingese and as we are all individuals with a heterogeneous CLL, we may all form a different level of response. You’ll see just how many posts we have presently asking this same important question. The only way to truly know is an antibody test but they’re not routinely being offered in the NHS. Depending on where you’re from and it sounds like the U.K. if you’ve had the Oxford AZ , then you’d need to ask your Consultant for advice.

Importantly however, even if the antibody response isn’t good, it may still offer protection in terms of your T cell response. It’s therefore recommended by the haematological medical community.

I’ve had my first jab of the AZ vaccine and apart from a slightly sore arm and a bit of tiredness, I was ok.

Newdawn

[Pekingese in reply to Newdawn]

Thank you Newdawn even if we get a little protection it’s better than none, I’m pleased you are ok take care.

[annmcgowan]

Hi I agree with what Newdawn has said, best to have it. I had Oxford, had sore arm, a few chills and felt a bit tired for an afternoon.Ann

[JigFettler Volunteer]

I agree with Newdawn also.

Any immunity from vaccination, any immunity from the actual disease, will have different imprints and impacts on different people. The degree of protection will vary, as will the longevity of said protection.

Time will tell - but we are hearing vaxxed folk are not showing the same intensity of Covid - if they get infected it after vacc no1 and 2.

There are many reports, some mythical, some incredible.

As Newdawn says - its more than antibodies. The immune system holds infection memory even if no antibodies are found. T cell stuff indeed.

Jig

[zaax]

There is a piece in today's Standard saying if you had a response from the Jab you may have had Covid. standard.co.uk/news/uk/pfiz...

[Pekingese in reply to zaax]

Thank you, I will take a look ☺️

[Shedman in reply to Pekingese]

Interesting, though it applies to the Pfizer/BionTech vaccines, not necessarily to the Oxford vaccine.The Oxford vaccine (all the vaccines) are a little different to any vaccine we have had before.

If you are an allergic type, like me, then the L-histidine in the Oxford vaccine is present to create a better response.. one thing it does, results in production of histamine.. allergic types respond to histamine (hence use of anti-histamines to ease allergic reactions)

It is difficult or impossible to know whether or not a reaction is note-worthy — see my post of a few days ago with a table of typical reactions, and the percentage of people who give those reactions. (Click on my icon to get to my profile, then you will see that post at top of my posts)

[Pekingese in reply to Shedman]

Thank you for your reply, I’llTake a look.

[bennevisplace]

In an ideal world we would each be able to have our Covid immune status routinely monitored along with our blood counts for CLL, and where necessary be given targeted drugs like mAbs for ongoing protection. In theory this would be possible, but in a far from ideal world is not practical.

I don't know if CLL patients' immune responses to vaccination are being systematically studied, but we are a heterogeneous group and maybe the results would be as variable as the immune responses of cancer patients and a blood-cancer subgroup to Covid infection, which have been studied:

Results just published from one of these studies – the SOAP study – suggest that patients with solid cancers have a similar immune response to the virus as people without cancer. Those with blood cancers were found to have a more variable response, with some people responding similarly to people with solid cancers, while others didn’t manage to clear the virus or develop antibodies against it. The numbers in this study weren’t big enough to determine whether patients with particular blood cancers or receiving particular treatments had a poorer response.

These findings may have implications for COVID-19 vaccination, for example it may be that some people with cancer would benefit from more frequent boosters or monitoring to check their response. The SOAP study plans to investigate this in the next phase of their project, which will look at the immune response to the vaccine in people with different type of cancer.

scienceblog.cancerresearchu...

[Pekingese in reply to bennevisplace]

Thank you that’s interesting ☺️