Covid-19 Vaccines

[Budd77]

If the vaccine that they are developing for coved-19 is a live vaccine, what does that mean for us Cll patients who don’t take live vaccines.

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[AussieNeil Administrator]

We will be reliant on enough people either gaining immunity from being ill with COVID-19 or being vaccinated AND their immunity holding. We will only require about 60% of the community to have immunity to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2, compared to about 93% for measles, which is more infectious (but while potentially very serious, is not as deadly).

Encourage everyone you know to be vaccinated!

Neil

[bkoffman CLL CURE Hero]

60+ vaccines in development, most are not live, so they should be safe for us. Whether they will work for us us a whole other question and one not being studied as far as I know. Stay strong. Brian CLLSociety.org

[Fran57 in reply to bkoffman]

Thank you. That is very encouraging!

Fran 😉

[Budd77 in reply to bkoffman]

Thanks for that information, sounds good

[Hiking1954 in reply to bkoffman]

Thank you for the info

[bennevisplace]

The diagrammatic explanation here

bbc.co.uk/news/health-52394485

shows that the vaccine being developed by Astrazeneca/ Oxford University uses DNA extracted from SARS-COV2 inserted into a harmless vector virus, so it could not produce the disease even in an immunocompromised person.

I don't know if the same is true for all other Covid19 vaccines in development. I make no assumption because the drug that dominates the global market is usually the one that gets to market first, and let's be clear the no. 1 goal of a vaccine is to generate global herd immunity. Protection of the most vulnerable is a secondary objective.

Currently there are 10 or so attenuated (live) vaccines in use in the UK, and health professionals must ensure that these are not given to anyone with a suppressed immune system. Those, the young and the old are given an inactivated version of the flu vaccine for example.

The other issue for those of us with a very weak immune system is whether vaccination would stimulate a response strong enough to generate antibodies. For some, I guess, there will be a window of opportunity to get vaccinated either before or after a treatment-induced nadir.

In the mean time, continued shielding seems the only way to stay safe.

[81ue in reply to bennevisplace]

First thing I did after reading your post was look up 'vaccine shedding' re live vaccines and now I'm wondering if I'll have to explain this stuff to those who might tell me "don't worry I had the vaccine".

westonaprice.org/studies-sh...

"Scientific evidence demonstrates that individuals vaccinated with live virus vaccines such as MMR (measles, mumps and rubella), rotavirus, chicken pox, shingles and influenza can shed the virus for many weeks or months afterwards and infect the vaccinated and unvaccinated alike."

[bennevisplace in reply to 81ue]

Yes this would be a risk with a live virus. Let's hope Oxford wins the race!