John Hopkins Webinar on transplant recipients and vaccines

Congratulations! Maybe we will all have the same response.

TU! I certainly hope so.

After, I heard the report of only 17% responded with antibodies I decided get a test before I got vaccinated. My antibody test showed positive for IgG antibodies, but there was no score just a value - Reactive AA. Does anyone know what that means? I searched and Googled but can't find anything.

@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

@jerrynord Having Covid can be advantageous in some ways but there's the gamble that you might have a serious case of it. I prefer to avoid it, just in case. Every day I see how many people died in our state the day before. I realize that most of them are older, but I'm older too!
JK

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 have not been able to find the recorded session of this webinar. I am also interested in the amount of protection that the vaccine provides for us transplant patients, but I already know that I am unable/unqualified to even interpret my own lab results and I know that my results are a snapshot of present conditions.

However, in reading the reactions here, I am interested what anyone hopes to learn from their own antibody tests(?). Will the positive or negative antibodies change your behavior?

Rosemary, that is really the question. The presenter in the webinar used the word "scary" several times until someone in the chat room wrote "Enough with the word scary". Our entire adventure has been filled with trepidations and bumps, yet here we are. The epidemiologists are looking at the disease and our transplant team looks to take care of us. That's where the rubber meets the road. I would continue to use precautions whether or not antibodies are present in my body; we don't know even about this virus yet to understand how long the antibodies last. That's a huge issue. I'll stay safe and my behavior will change incrementally as we learn more.

Hi Rosemary. I don't know if the recorded webinar is posted yet. I'm attaching the news release - research letter - on the actual report of the research. I needed my son to help decipher the math. 🙂
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2777685

Interview with the Doc leading the study. https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/91775