Don’t Forget the Immunocompromised

Vaccines don’t work for everyone, so the government should be buying more doses of treatments that can help.

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Much of the national discussion on COVID has revolved around the vaccinated versus the unvaccinated, and what that distinction means for rates of infection, hospitalization, and death. But there is a third group, made up of those who follow the rules, but still face a threat: the immunocompromised. 

I am one of them, and I faced some important decisions last spring when I learned that the new COVID-19 vaccines did not work for more than half of organ transplant recipients such as myself. The problem is that the medications we take to avert organ rejection can also suppress our antibody-producing cells. 

Sure enough, testing showed that my first and second vaccine doses produced no detectable antibodies. I got boosted anyway given the chance that the vaccine might strengthen T-cell mediated immunity, another component of the immune system.

Despite my vulnerability, I decided to live as normally as possible. Not that I was reckless. I wore a mask indoors, observed the same maniacal hand hygiene I have followed since my first kidney transplant in 2006, and socialized only with people who were vaccinated. 

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    Thank you, Dr. Satel. Good luck to you. My aunt is on immunosuppressive drugs (I think) and won’t get the vaccine. I’m worried about her.

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    Jason Gibson

    A very valuable voice.

    I feel this is more evidence that thr government pursues the wrong policies

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  3. L. McKee

    I am a transplant patient, and I have done all I can do to avoid covid. My transplant physician had informed me last year that my chance of an immune repsonse to the vaccine was small, although I am vaxxed and boosted. I was relieved to hear about the release of Paxlovid. Now, I learned from this article and some subsequent Googling that Paxlovid is contraindicated with my immunosupressant. I hope the government will have consideration for people like me and fast-track the appropriate authorization and sufficient antibody quantities.

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  4. Curtis C

    This really hits home for me, as my wife received new lungs 9 1/2 years ago and her not being able to access these potentially life-saving treatments is my biggest fear. She and I are fully vaccinated and boosted, and our 5 year-old is fully vaccinated.

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    Pat Riot

    The population of immunocompromised Americans are the most acute victims of today's GOP. It's hard to imagine them caring about such a small population of Americans, though, since they are happy to send even large chunks of our population to their deaths in order to own the libs.

    https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/press-release/unvaccinated-adults-are-now-more-than-three-times-as-likely-to-lean-republican-than-democratic/

    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/jan/22/tucker-carlson-compares-us-vaccine-mandates-nazi-medical-experiments

    https://www.wkow.com/coronavirus/sen-johnson-holds-another-forum-for-vaccine-skeptics-wisconsin-doctors-hospitals-reject-claims/article_e8c85956-7d79-11ec-82fd-abdc49311ff6.html

    https://texassignal.com/ted-cruz-fully-vaccinated-wants-to-shut-down-the-government-over-vaccine-mandates/

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/25/gops-anti-vaccine-mandate-push-is-seeping-into-other-vaccines-schools/



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    1. Avatar photo
      Kmregan7

      Your comment jogs my memory about a question I had. Has anyone done any number crunching into the number of deaths and their political history? The unvaccinated are the ones that are dying in record numbers. Most (but not all!) are unvaccinated because of politics (at least partly). So rural, older, white - basically red-state demographics.....are dying in higher numbers. Surely someone in the party is getting slightly worried that they may be losing voters. Or am I just....being morbid and it doesn't matter?

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  6. Daniel Rabiner

    What of people who refuse vaccination and then decide to rely on these treatments instead? Aren't they burdening the immunocompromised population by reducing treatment supplies for them while being selfish themselves? Should we put limitations on these monoclonal treatments to only the immunocompromised?

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    1. mle

      Yes. Resources (for everything from monoclonal treatments to hospital beds) are strained by COVID, and people refusing vaccination are absolutely impacting the vulnerable.

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  7. Avatar photo
    Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

    My prayers are with you. The immuno-compromised out to be at the top of our concern priorities.

    My (now deceased) wife was diagnosed with leukemia, and did a bone marrow transplant procedure, so she was immuno-compromised. I learned so much about how maniacal the immno-compromised had to be. When she was initially discharged, she had no visitors for 3 weeks, including our 15 month old son. She'd get bored, so we'd drive around, but we never stopped anywhere. I scrubbed every time I came into the house.

    Her new marrow failed, she went back into the hospital, where she picked up the aspergillus virus, while in a BMT ward, in a room designed to keep out viruses. We were told it's a common virus many healthy people carry, but for her, it killed her within a week. No treatment for it back then.

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