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John Hopkins Webinar on transplant recipients and vaccines

Transplants | Last Active: Jan 13, 2022 | Replies (141)

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@contentandwell

@estrada53 I thought the conference was excellent despite them acknowledging that it was not great news so far.

I too am on sirolimus and prednisone.

I requested the antibody tests used by Johns Hopkins from Mass General but for some reason, the person who fields all of the portal messages said they were not doing that. I thought if they requested that maybe my insurance would pay for it whereas if I self-referred it would not so I went to get the test anyway. It turned out that they can only do those tests with a doctor's lab request. Since I had already paid a fee I went ahead and got the regular antibody test and I did test positive for antibodies. That test does not tell you just how much immunity you do have though. I asked my PCP for a lab request and she called today and has faxed one to the lab so I will go for that tomorrow. I will be very interested in seeing what my immunity will be. I am sure I will have the results next week. When I do I will let everybody know how I fared.

@livertex I suspect you had the same test I had. It just shows positive and negative, not how many antibodies you have.
JK

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Replies to "@estrada53 I thought the conference was excellent despite them acknowledging that it was not great news..."

Estrada53,
II bet you are right. I will be interested to know. I forgot to say in my post that I had covid 4 months ago so I do want to know how many antibodies I have. Maybe It may not be necessary to get the vaccination.

I got the results of the antibody test today that shows how many antibodies I have. I knew I had some from the other test.

Here are the results that I copied from the report:
TESTS RESULT FLAG UNITS REFERENCE INTERVAL LAB
SARS-CoV-2 Semi-Quant Total Ab A 13.83 U/mL <0.80 01
Antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein receptor binding domain (RBD) were detected. It is yet undetermined what level of antibody to SARS-CoV-2 spike protein correlates to immunity against developing symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 disease. Studies are underway to measure the quantitative levels of specific SARS-CoV-2 antibodies following vaccination. Such studies will provide valuable insights into the correlation between protection from vaccination and antibody levels.
Interpretation:
Negative <0.80
Positive >0.79

I am going to have to ask the lab for some further explanation of these but apparently 13.83, my level, is less than .80 indicating I have negative immunity I think. Initially I thought the 13.83 was in comparison to the 95% immunity that the vaccines are giving most people but from the fact that it is below .80, another thing I don't understand -- when I took math 13.83 was more than .80. 😟

I had my second shot on February 14th, and the test was on March 29, so it was well beyond then. If there is a delayed response I am pretty sure that it would still be within that time frame.

Someone asked if knowing would change behavior. Yes, definitely it does. I have not seen my son for over a year and he very much wants to visit but I have been saying no since it requires a flight during which he could of course be exposed. If I thought I had decent immunity then I would feel more comfortable saying he could come. As it is I think he will have to wait until more people are vaccinated. I have heard that as time goes on more and more people are realizing that the vaccines are OK and signing up for it. I hope that is true. I have heard that some people object for religious reasons but even most churches are advocating the vaccine, and the concern about some relationship with aborted fetuses is only applicable for the J&J vaccine.
The Catholic Church has said if possible get a different vaccine but if not then get the J&J one.
JK

I got an invite for a clinical trial study of vaccine recipients. They sent me a script about 3 mo after my last vaccine for bloodwork at my lab. Then, they sent a letter showing I had positive antibodies. They will continue to test for 1 year..
No charge.