Covid antibopdies

[kathrynellen]

Hi. I'm in a bit of a panic, and looking for advice, help, reassurance, whatever. I had my first vaccine on January 28th, Pfizer one. Just done an antibody test for UK Biobank (for research purposes) and it says I have no antibodies. I assume this means that the vaccine hasn't worked. So what now?

 

[Robin]

Hi. I'm in a bit of a panic, and looking for advice, help, reassurance, whatever. I had my first vaccine on January 28th, Pfizer one. Just done an antibody test for UK Biobank (for research purposes) and it says I have no antibodies. I assume this means that the vaccine hasn't worked. So what now?

My Biobank one was negative too. Did you get a covering letter with the test? It explains about not worrying if have a negative test, and that it doesn’t mean that the vaccine hasn’t worked. (it’s overleaf on the covering letter). The older you are the longer it takes to produce antibodies, your body also produces T cells that defend you against the virus bit they don’t show on the test, and if you only have lower levels of antibodies, they will be enough to protect you, but the test won’t pick them up.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

My Biobank one was negative too.

And mine.

I'm also not losing sleep over it. Immunity is complex and these tests aren't that good (though I assume Biobank chose the best of the at home versions they could).

 

[helli]

This is the first question covered in quite a bit of detail by BioBank's FAQ page

Frequently Asked Questions: Phase 2

ukbiobank.ac.uk

My test is in the post and I am intrigued to see what my result is even if it is not 100% accurate

 

[Robin]

This is the first question covered in quite a bit of detail by BioBank's FAQ page

Frequently Asked Questions: Phase 2

ukbiobank.ac.uk

My test is in the post and I am intrigued to see what my result is even if it is not 100% accurate

That’s basically what’s on the back of the covering letter, paraphrased a bit. OH is expecting a test too, it’ll be interesting to see if his is negative or positive.

 

[KathC]

I had my first Oxford Astra Zeneca jab at the beginning of March and my UK Biobank test was negative too.

 

[Ljc]

My non medical understanding re antibodies is.
Once our immune system has dealt with the problem successfully, the antibodies remain for some time but then they can slowly disappear. However our T cells should retain the memory of what antibodies were needed to deal with that particular illness etc and if it is detected again , the immune system starts producing those antibodies again.

Mind you I have had Chicken pox twice, the first time very mildly , the second time I made a proper job of it , and shingles three times.