covid and flu vaccines

[Excelsior80]

just been offered covid and flu vaccines as over 65. i had all previous recommended vaccines and i recently had covid. i got PMR suddenly in Spring after a week of fever (not sure what it was.) Currently on 9mg pred per day. My GP surgery not advising, say up to me. What id like to know is, is immune suppression from steroids a risk for these vaccines and am i likely protected anyway as i had covid recently? I know most people dont get side effects from vaccines but dont want to risk if not necessary.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

First things first - you are only protected for the particular version of Covid that you had. The vaccine is a more wide-ranging protection.

Not quite clear what you mean by "is immune suppression from steroids a risk for these vaccines " - you may not develop quite a strong a response to the vaccine when you are on pred but that risk was in the earlier days and it was found that you do catch up in time if you continue to have the vaccines. If you have had all your previous vaccines, you should contiue to update the protection. There is a gap you are supposed to leave between an infection and a vaccine, different countries have different recommendations but the UK seems to say a month from the positive test and this site

nhs.uk/vaccinations/covid-1...

says just to wait until you feel fully recovered.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

I had a number of flu vaccines whilst I was on high dose for GCA [way before covid hit the streets] with no issues - nor flu!

You will have some natural immunity from having Covid, but as there seems to be concern world-wise from latest strain, I’d be taking advantage of getting the next round of vaccines.

Personal opinion only.

[Excelsior80]

many thanks both.

[KASHMIRI1]

I have been advised by my GP and rheumy to take the vaccinations and several people I know that have had covid are sure that it would have been a lot worse than if they hadn't taken it.

[Bcol]

I've had all the Covid and flu vaccinations whilst on low and high doses of Pred and had no problems with any of them. RSV on Saturday and Covid and flu in the next few weeks.

[Bcol]

Not the easiest of reading but not sure that is born out by the statistics but the link is below.

ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulation...

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to Bcol]

Totally agree…

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Note: to put this in context, this is a reply to a misleading reply that has been deleted:

That is skewed logic and statistics as explained here

reuters.com/fact-check/misl...

You cannot compare two wildly disparate groups in terms of size, there are always likely to be more deaths in the massive group of vaccinated subjects if you look at absolute figures. You have to adjust for size - and when you do that and express both rates for the same size population, 100,000 is the usual figure, the opposite is true:

"This shows in July 2021, for example, there were 1,688 deaths per 100,000 unvaccinated people, compared with 1,064 per 100,000 vaccinated people."

Bear in mind that those who told you they had the vaccine and then had Covid badly very possibly wouldn't have survived to tell the tale had they not had the vaccine. It never said it would stop you getting it - just make it less worse if you did.

[Excelsior80]

its really difficult! when most people have had the vaccine and also most people have had covid, and people who werent vaccinated often there was a medical reason .....disentangling whats due to what, id need better statistics than i have ... thank you very much .... ive booked the vaccinations in a couple of weeks, but left a question at the gp surgery about whether any problems or extra considerations due to pmr or steroids