Hi all, just reading The Times whilst waiting for my car to be MOTd
Saw this “antibodies against the strain (delta variant) in people who had been vaccinated with two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were more than five times lower than antibodies against the original strain ...”
Interested in people’s views.
I believe the sample was 250 people. Also that reducing the time between vaccine one and two is recommended again.
Very small sample then.
Yes I thought so too.
True, 250 is far too low a number to get any kind of reliable evidence. I'm waiting for the results of the Octave study - perhaps by the end of the year or early 2022. And two Pfizer vaccines 3 weeks apart as recommended by the laboratory right from the start is the best bet - even for those like me on immunosuppressive drugs. But we have to be cautious nevertheless; as the protection is almost certainly suboptimal.
Patience, patience!
bienassis
That’s the word ... patience, but so many in this country don’t have much! I think it will be early next year re the Octave findings.
Yes, you are right, patience is in short supply. It's characteristic of the times we live in - instant gratification is demanded of everything. That makes me sound like a relic from another age; and perhaps I am.
Still, if the results of the Octave study show that we can expect a reasonably good protection from the virus that will be excellent - and there is also the possibility of a third jab in the autumn to look forward to.
Meanwhile, with my husband and Bertie (our cat), I shall continue to be cautious. On Bank Holiday Monday we did see our daughter, Isabel, for the first time since January 2020. Perfect weather, and the three of us spent the afternoon in the garden. The train from London Bridge had few passengers - all wearing masks - which was a relief as Isabel has found that on trains there is a reluctance to keep masks on once the train is underway.
I don’t expect the research findings to be too great for my med but hope they are better than originally thought for all our meds. I am glad your daughter could travel to see you without too much trouble last weekend. 💗 That’s a long time to wait for you to see each other. Yes the weather was perfect for seeing people outside more safely, I hope that my B cells have repopulated by the autumn, so I can have a booster then. No, you’re not a relic! Social media and accessibility to everything so fast has made many people intolerant and impatient. 😑
So it's the B cells that are targeted by your medication. Excuse my ignorance - as a newcomer to biologics I'm not familiar with the various medications and their ways of tackling this disease. And you have a different route for taking the drug - that is, via transfusions at intervals of several months. From what you say, that does give you a "window" when you may benefit better from vaccines.
My anti TNF medication is given every two weeks by injection. This method is comparatively new in the UK - only being authorised by NICE in March 2020. Most patients still have it by infusions. When I read about the approval for injectiod my rheumatology department and asked if I could change to injections at home.
It seemed an ideal way of administering the drug during this pandemic. I think I'm still the only patient at the hospital who has taken advantage of it.
My initial "loading" doses were given by infusion at 8 week intervals and the injections are top-up doses at two week intervals. I was told I didn't need to stop or change my routine in order to have the vaccines. That also applied to my weekly methotrexate injections. I had the vaccines quite early on - the first on December 21st 2020 and the second three weeks later on 11th January 2021.
Since that date the advice has changed somewhat - it is now advised to have a short interval of a few days between the medicine and vaccine. Well, we are all on a learning curve here and have to be prepared for these variations. I'm just glad to have had the vaccines.
Yes, the world is obsessed by speed. I correspond with friends in different parts of the world and they all prefer email to pigeon post. "It's so much quicker". But since we only exchange news about twice a year I'm not sure what speed has to do with it. They are persuaded by their children that this is the only way to go.
Enjoy the rest of the day - and give your cat a kiss on his/her flat head from me (another cat lover).
Hi. I saw that too. Also read a John Hopkins, and a BMJ article to follow up, as this made me sad. The reality is ‘they don’t know’… there is one biologic which seems to give a markedly lower response, but I purposefully didn’t make a note of the name. As most trials are still on ‘normal people’ without underlying conditions, it is all a bit vague for us.. also studies of immunocompromised people cover quite a range, so again, not easy to dissect yet.
Some studies think we may be at an advantage as our immune systems will not implode….
Be safe and take care, is all we can do really… I do expect some kind of booster before winter, but they are still ‘making’ it…
Yes, it’s the biologic I have and we don’t know for sure how well it works or not with the Covid vaccines. I believe it has blunted the flu vaccine for some people to a certain lesser efficacy, but still worth having the flu shot, and we were told it’s worth having the Covid shot even if we take immunosuppressants. We don’t know for sure and neither do they how much decrease in efficacy there is, but there have been some small number studies of immunosuppressed taking this med in the USA. There is a need for much larger numbers in these trials and we await the Octave findings and any others ongoing at present.
Covid-19 Vaccination?
HOPE for immunosuppressed?
Covid 19 Vaccine antibody results 
Off topic maybe - petition for antibody testing for immunosuppressed 
