Cruising Soon (May)

[Wendy328]

I had a Covid shot in September. I recently it’s a good idea to get a booster about 4 weeks before. I will of course check with my Dr. but just curious has any one else heard that? My best, Wendy

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator]

Hi Wendy,

That 4 weeks looks about right, though actual effectiveness of boosters depends on many factors, most of which are beyond our control, such as the vaccines available, the variants to which we are exposed and of course our past treatment history and how well our CLL impacted immune system works. I've included a plot of vaccine effectiveness from this paper;

Covid-19 Vaccine Effectiveness against the Omicron (B.1.1.529) Variant

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/352...

Results: Between November 27, 2021, and January 12, 2022, a total of 886,774 eligible persons infected with the omicron variant, 204,154 eligible persons infected with the delta variant, and 1,572,621 eligible test-negative controls were identified. At all time points investigated and for all combinations of primary course and booster vaccines, vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic disease was higher for the delta variant than for the omicron variant. No effect against the omicron variant was noted from 20 weeks after two ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 doses, whereas vaccine effectiveness after two BNT162b2 doses was 65.5% (95% confidence interval [CI], 63.9 to 67.0) at 2 to 4 weeks, dropping to 8.8% (95% CI, 7.0 to 10.5) at 25 or more weeks. (My emphasis)

As to how quickly an antibody response is seen from memory B cells responding to the booster, the paper below found the response peaked in the period of 1 to 2 weeks afterwards.

Early-stage antibody kinetics after the third dose of BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccination measured by a point-of-care fingertip whole blood testing

nature.com/articles/s41598-...

The neutralizing antibody titers were shown to peak within two weeks following secondary vaccination3,8, thereby effectively reducing SARS-CoV-2 infections, hospitalizations, and death9,10. However, neutralizing antibody titers and vaccine efficacy decrease over time and are negatively affected by new emerging variants11,12,13,14,15,16,17.

:

Fingertip whole blood sampling test in 226 health care workers (HCWs) who had received two doses of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech) at least 8 months prior. Each participant tested their antibody titers before and after the third-dose booster up to 14-days. The effect of the booster was observed as early as the fourth day after vaccination, which exceeded the detection limit (> 30,000 U/mL) by 2.3% on the fifth day, 12.2% on the sixth day, and 22.5% after the seventh day. Furthermore, the antibody titers under the detection upper limit also increased 15-fold on the fifth day (median [IQR], 1530.1 [487.8, 3606.1] U/mL; range, 53.1–25,698.6 U/mL), 66-fold on the sixth day (median [IQR], 6671.7 [2788.8, 13,149.9] U/mL; range, 344.1–27,313.2 U/mL), and 63-fold after the seventh day (median [IQR], 6405.6 [2628.1, 13,336.2] U/mL; range, 595.0–29,786.7 U/mL).

Neil

Vaccine effectiveness peaked around 4 weeks, but maintained protection 5 to 9 weeks.

[Wendy328 in reply to AussieNeil]

Thank you! You always have such good information!

[Mystic75]

Have a wonderful cruise!

[xpro3]

Although Covid-19 is certainly still out there and still a major threat to us CLL/SLLers, nowadays to be honest I'm more worried about measles. Had my titers checked last year, and I no longer have immunity to measles. Since the measles vaccine is "live" we cannot get it and are at the mercy of those around us keeping their vaccines current and using good sense (which is sadly wanting these days).

I've successfully (that is, healthily) travelled a few times over the past few years by taking the following precautions: 3M Aura N95 that goes on before I walk into the airport and doesn't come off until walking out of the airport at my destination (save for a few seconds removal for ID checks). Avoid indoor dining where possible (we prefer dining al fresco anyhow) and masking up (with a KN95) in crowded environments.

Not sure I'd do a cruise, as that's too risky for my tastes.

Enjoy your trip and stay safe!

[Goopteal]

I agree about the measles, and I take the same precautions. In regard to COVID, if I am going out of the US, I travel with Paxlovid, which was my doctor’s recommendation.