covid protection!

[stuart872]

hi everybody, the question i have had both covid vaccinations and had minimal side effects. my better half had quite a strong reaction after the first one and mild on the second one. she decided to take an antibody test to see if she had antibodies and it came back positive for antibodies. she then convinced me to have the same test but mine came back very low to none!
my question is this normal for diabetics or should we have antibodies also. this is starting to make me very worried and nervous about going anywhere even to shops because they are like a freestyle scrum, no holds barred. could people with low responses have the booster shots early. i am very confused

 

[Bruce Stephens]

my question is this normal for diabetics or should we have antibodies also.

I don't think you (well, we) should worry. I don't think it's anything to do with diabetes. It's apparently just something to do with the antibody tests (they test for some particular kind, but apparently vaccination doesn't necessarily produce that kind of antibody or something).

I (and a number of other members of the forum) were sent a test by UK Biobank. (Some were positive, some (including mine) were negative.) For this specific test they gave a video explaining things and I imagine much the same's true for many antibody tests

 

[pm133]

I'm not sure that antibody tests can tell you how likely you are to catch covid or how severe a case you'd get if you did catch it.
Personally, I think antibody levels provide no guarantee of anything.
I understand that people want certainties but unfortunately this can rarely be provided when to comes to things like this. It's all about balancing risk.

I found a few links. The first is guidabnce from the Welsh government stating the same thing.
https://gov.wales/antibody-testing-coronavirus-covid-19

Then the WHO saying the same thing although this was from a year ago.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...n=8a488cb6_2&usg=AOvVaw3RnBfLh8ofCdyFPZh--FEG

Then this from the EDCD from May this year which looks as though it's saying the same thing:
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/covid-19/latest-evidence/immune-responses

Finally, Oxford Uni researchers have tried to assess the correlation between antibody levels and risk of catching covid.
https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2021-06-2...ibody-protection-required-prevent-symptomatic

 

[Ljc]

With vaccines and viruses etc once our antibodies have won the battle , they stick around for a while then gradually disappear, this is normal. However if the virus or vaccine etc is detected again the other part of our immune system (T cells I believe but not sure ) kick in and start producing the correct antibodies for whatever has breached our defences again , in other words it has learned how to deal with that particular enemy lol.

The trouble with viruses is they tend to mutate, hence the yearly flu vaccine , it is to update our immune system on the mutations expect to be in circulation, I expect it will be the same with this virus.

Also their is rumblings about a third jab this year, so I would not worry.

 

[Lucyr]

hi everybody, the question i have had both covid vaccinations and had minimal side effects. my better half had quite a strong reaction after the first one and mild on the second one. she decided to take an antibody test to see if she had antibodies and it came back positive for antibodies. she then convinced me to have the same test but mine came back very low to none!
my question is this normal for diabetics or should we have antibodies also. this is starting to make me very worried and nervous about going anywhere even to shops because they are like a freestyle scrum, no holds barred. could people with low responses have the booster shots early. i am very confused

Which antibody test did you do? Some only detect antibodies from infection not from vaccinations.

 

[Robin]

Also their is rumblings about a third jab this year, so I would worry.

I assume you mean 'I wouldn’t worry'
I think you’re right about the T cells. Husband and I both did an antibody test for Biobank, and neither of us came up positive for antibodies, even though we were both double jabbed. The accompanying leaflet said there were various reasons why that could be, length of time since the jabs, age, low undetectable levels etc, and it mentioned T cells.
My nephew managed to catch Covid and give it to his parents who were both double jabbed, but although they tested positive on a PCR test, both of them just had very mild sniffles for a few days.

 

[Ljc]

Oops Thank you @Robin , yes I meant , I would not worry.
I will edit my post