Warning to the vaccinated...

[Choccy8]

I've been having a lot of trouble finishing this post as the site keeps freezing up on me, so will post what I can and add the rest as a reply. Apologies for the disappearance of the first a

[suzannah16]

I wait eagerly. the gremlins are certainly with you

[Choccy8]

...attempt! So I was dismayed on opening to find they expected me to squeeze out about a thimble-full of blood out of my finger. Four dagger-like finger prickers later, I felt very queasy and had two very sore fingers and only had about half the blood that they wanted me to send. Anyway the results came back quickly and I was told I had antibody levels at 6.4, in a possible scale of 0 to 2500. Searching around for some context, I found an article, link to follow below (!) with a table giving percentages of people in each band of antibody level, including a separate table for the immune compromised. Apparently the double jabbed AZ vaccine immune compromised folk had a 19% chance of not having any antibodies. I was in the lowest level of those who showed antibodies, along with 6% of others. At the time of vaccination, I was only taking steroids rather than other immune suppressants. So the point of my posting this is to warn everyone to take care and not assume that the vaccine gives full protection.

[Choccy8 in reply to Choccy8]

testingforall.org/understan...

[Froggie70 in reply to Choccy8]

Hi Choccy thanks for this. I was told by nurse to get one of these tests as MTX might stop vaccine from working. So £50 later I’m just waiting on it arriving. Did get a bit spooked when I watched the video on how to take blood. That’s something to look forward to. I’m sorry about your result and thanks for the heads up. Take care 🤗

[Choccy8 in reply to Froggie70]

That's interesting that you were told to get a test. Yes, it wasn’t fun, but even though I only gave them half what they asked for, they seemed to be able to get a result ok. They said if you don't send enough, they'll ask you to do it again 'free of charge' so I was dreading that! Hope you get a reassuring result and manage to bleed copiously... Take care x

[Froggie70 in reply to Choccy8]

As the nurse tells me frequently it’s like getting blood out a stone so doesn’t bode well. Thanks again and stay safe. X

[KayHimm in reply to Froggie70]

In the US they are not recommending that you get tested. If you are on methotrexate, you may get a booster soon. The UK seems to be ahead of us with authorizing boosters.

Do be careful

[KayHimm in reply to Choccy8]

It is important information. What dose of steroids were you on?

It looks like boosters will go to people like you. Looking positive interns of getting the antibody response up.

Be careful. Get a good mask.

K

[Tile in reply to Choccy8]

Spike protein antibodies after fully dosed in general population the average is 16,000 U. But many SEMI quantitative tests only go up to 2500 U. and no matter how much higher will just give >2500 U. Spike p. antibodies can wane after 3 months there can be a big drop in number. There is a correlation between spike protein antibodies and neutralizing antibodies, so low spike p. antibodies will mean low neutralizing antibodies with no need to test for neutralizing antibodies. The 3rd dose is not considered a booster dose because the ones receiving it will already have low antibodies. Can almost guarantee that the 3rd dose will need a 4th dose to get antibody numbers higher, as it's like starting from scratch. I guess they just don't want to hear anymore from WHO saying what about other countries that need vaccines. But if the country that gives 3rd doses are doing it to give some immunity to those whose ABs have waned and not protective why shouldn't that country protect its citizens. Who else will.

[Ingrid1234]

All these PCR tests more correctly called RTPCR or Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction test are very expensive. One wonders why?

Why do they have to be so expensive and hyped up?

[Roarah]

T and B cell production is also an important measure of protection from severe disease. As of yet there is no correlate of protection number for covid vaccination like there is for rubella. If worried see about testing those.

[Hidden]

I think this site has brain fog today as it just keeps crashing and showing error messages

[CavendishCool]

Me too. It's like an episode of Line of Duty or Emmerdale! Disclaimer, the above dramas do not represent my taste in tv; (they might do) other TV is available! 😁. I hope the preceeding emoji has not caused offence - big article on Radio 4 Today programme this morning about misuse of emoji's and upsetting people who you send them too. 🙈🙉🙊. Disclaimer: The preceeding emoji's were sent with fun and love as are all mine. Apart from on occasion this one 💩 . This just makes me laugh. Going for a lie down now. Peace, love and light to all my fellow Loops ❤ just can't help myself!

[Hidden]

I did this Roche test too and got a score of 233. Similarly to you I battled to get enough blood but finally got the full quota in form of a weird thick glob!

Sorry your results were so low. I was quite excited about mine until my son, who has a good mathematical mind - declared this result to be meaningless yesterday. I said surely not in context of 2500? He said it’s still meaningless because you have other antibodies already so with your autoimmune disease presumably these could skew the data you’ve been given. He immediately understood that this isn’t a reliable measurement for someone unless their immunesuppressant medication is already targeting a well managed autoimmune disease very effectively. So, in a person like me with autoantibodies and high immunoglobulins A and G - my immune system might still not be suppressed enough and therefore the fact that I’ve mounted some reasonable immune response to the vaccine might mean that my wayward immune system is still hyperactive and could be giving misleadingly reassuring results.

And anyway, he concluded, in percentage terms 233/2500 isn’t much of a response to both vaccines. So he’s still not going to come near me for a hug and still thinks I’m CEV and therefore it would apparently be “selfish” of me to think otherwise?! He is on the autistic spectrum and his line of work is whisky not medicine. But nevertheless I think he makes a good point. He became annoyed when I said that I felt more confident about having fully vaccinated friends and family members visit us now because he says that it’s not fair on them. Think how they would feel if they inadvertently gave me Covid, assuming I’m as immune now as they are following both vaccines.

Until we can rely on the vaccines having brought about a kind of herd immunity in the population at large then I am resigned to still being in the CEV camp. X