The Vaccine

[buckbuck]

@tabbibus @swatski any other with input.
I have attached my test results. Do I have a "positive T-Detect result "?
If this was your report would you still recommend a vaccine? and why? Not trying to put anyone on the spot. Just collecting information to determine my direction and what my family should discuss.
Perhaps others who have had Covid could benefit from this conversation.

 

[swatski]

@tabbibus @swatski any other with input.
I have attached my test results. Do I have a "positive T-Detect result "?
If this was your report would you still recommend a vaccine? and why? Not trying to put anyone on the spot. Just collecting information to determine my direction and what my family should discuss.
Perhaps others who have had Covid could benefit from this conversation.

I think this is a healthy discussion. Apologies for my last post, it was posted as I was driving home, I edited it.

Looks like you had a positive result in a LabCorp /Diasorin Liaison test, which is one of 3-4 major providers of serological covid tests in US, among dozens. It's not a bad test, but it has a 2-3% rate of false positives, pretty much industry standard, and more like 10% false negative rate.
Without getting into intricacies of test validation, I would not make vaccination decisions based on the results of any serological tests (detecting antibodies), there are just too many caveats. Those tests have their place. But a positive result does not mean an individual is immunized.

If you have ever tested positive by a RT-PCR test, that would be considered a proof of active infection; still not a proof of immunity, albeit it could be implied as re-infection rates appear to be very low. T-Detect is newer and not yet widely known, I doubt you have had it done, yet.

T-Detect is an entirely different animal, instead of analyzing antibodies in blood serum like all serological tests or looking for evidence of viral nucleic acids like RT-PCR tests, T-Detect interrogates the DNA of cells that produce antibodies to neutralize virus (or cells that make other cells produce them, to be exact, but no need to get too specific). One could think of it as analyzing the matrix for producing antibodies (DNA code inside cells), rather than antibodies themselves (floating in the serum).

The T-Detect test is far from perfect but for various reasons it is extremely good at actually predicting "immunity" to covid. The people of Adaptive who invented it are elite cancer, and now covid, scientists supported by one of the Microsoft AI gurus. For Patients

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[tabbibus]

@tabbibus @swatski any other with input.
I have attached my test results. Do I have a "positive T-Detect result "?
If this was your report would you still recommend a vaccine? and why? Not trying to put anyone on the spot. Just collecting information to determine my direction and what my family should discuss.
Perhaps others who have had Covid could benefit from this conversation.
[/QUOT

Great discussion. I would echo what @swatski said, in fact defer to him in terms of testing minutiae. I don't have any data to answer your specific question about what decision to make based on your test. If you were my patient I would recommend vaccination 90 days after initial covid symptoms. I have not seen anyone reinfected before 90 days.

 

[buckbuck]

Thanks guys. Things are getting clearer for me and hopefully others.

 

[zipper]

We just scheduled our Vaccine shots for this coming week. We wanted to be "one and done" so we looked around for the J&J vaccine for over a week and successfully got appointments 15 mins. apart. It has been tough trying to get appointments around here.

 

[Jerlane]

Buck buck, props to you for keeping an open mind and listening to what others are saying. I’m not sure if I missed in in the previous posts, but you were asking why you should get vaccinated if you have already had COVID. The simple answer is that you will have better protection. Antibody tigers are much higher in individuals who have been vaccinated than those who have had previous infection. Here is some information you can look at:

Covid-19: People who have had infection might only need one dose of mRNA vaccine

People who have already had confirmed covid-19 might only need a single dose of a mRNA vaccine, two small studies have indicated. The first study, which was published as a preprint and has not yet been peer reviewed, found that seropositive individuals had a rapid antibody response after one...

www.bmj.com

 

[Mully262]

What a juicy topic. Towing the lines on the rules of conduct (only because apparently everything in this country seems to be politicized lately!).

I am getting my second Pfizer on Friday. Kinda excited to be immune and not have to worry about things like concerts, sporting events, etc.
I heard the A blood type has the worst reaction on the second shot. Nothing major, but just something to keep in mind if you get knocked out for a day (like a mild cold or flu).

Getting it only because it was easily available through the VA. I kinda view it like the flu shot. If it is readily available, I get it. If I forget, I am not losing sleep. That said, I am not in the high risk category so my perspective is different than others. To each their own, I respect people's decision on the vaccine and masks and all that, whatever they decide. Ultimately we control our own destiny, not others, nor should we get all bent out of shape on either side of the debate. I generally lean towards not worrying about it, but I have gone into a restaurant/bar that was a bit too "wild west" for my comfort, and moved on promptly. That is how I think it should be though: I do/don't feel comfortable, I make my own determination. I don't need the government telling me what to do, I just need them to inform me. Rant complete. Haha.

 

[HangOutdoors]

@Mully262. Getting the shots doesnt make you immune, please remember that. You can still get Covid, although your chances are extremely small.

 

[tabbibus]

Antibody tigers are much higher in individuals who have been vaccinated than those who have had previou...

Antibody Tigers are lame. I prefer leopards

 

[zipper]

You guys are confusing me....are we really talking about a titer test? I am a dog guy btw.

 

[Jerlane]

Antibody Tigers are lame. I prefer leopards

Ha! Antibody tigers are the best, but titers are a little more accurate. I’m not sure about leopards. Stupid autocorrect!

 

[Mully262]

@Mully262. Getting the shots doesnt make you immune, please remember that. You can still get Covid, although your chances are extremely small.

Don't rain on my parade!!! Me after my second shot:
(although, I hear ya....)

 

[HangOutdoors]

Don't rain on my parade!!! Me after my second shot:
(although, I hear ya....)

View attachment 146249

I get my second on wednesday of next week
Still not going to let people hack all over me for quite some time

 

[Ronnie]

My wife got her first shot about two weeks ago, she was a little fatigued for a few days but that was it. In the interim, my son and I got our J&J vaccine shots on Monday of this week.

My arm was a little stiff/sore that night and I was tired the rest of the day so I took a 6 hour nap before dinner and slept another 8 hours that night. I also took the next day/yesterday off to rest a little more but feel fine now.

It hit my son (18 year old) the hardest (proving that my generation is made of stronger stuff, JK). he went to bed about 4 hours after getting the shot, woke up yesterday with a “massive headache” and stayed in bed all day. After eating dinner last night he went back to bed, I hope he is feeling better today.

Getting vaccinated has been challenging for the 3 of us in the SF Bay Area. I was eligible 2 weeks ago but when I used my healthcare providers Web site to make an appointment all of the available slots were 4 weeks out and most almost 100 miles away. Despite the two mass vaccination sites with 25 miles of my home. There have been a few stories now on the news containing tips on how to prepare for a vaccination road trip or how to join a caravan to drive to places like Oregon or LA. We ended up going through CVS and Walgreens not our healthcare provider. I’m disappointed in how our healthcare provider handled this. They invited us to make an appointment and when we tried few were available and far away, they know where their members are and can estimate how many will want to get vaccinated (hell they heavily advocate that all it’s eligible members get vaccinated ASAP) but didn’t allocate the doses accordingly.

this Post just reminded me to cancel my first dose appointment with my healthcare provider next week, which should free up that dose for someone else.

 

[Gunner]

Got the J and J on Monday. That day for a couple hours I couldn't get warm and got very tired and dehydrated. Day two still tired and a little dehydrated. Woke up today and feel like my normal elderly self. Never had injection site pain at all.

 

[RightStuff]

Came across this article that I thought was good at answering some questions post-vaccination, thought I would share:
So you’re vaccinated — what are you waiting for?

 

[2kwik4u]

Saw this on Reddit......Because, of course I did. Thought it was relevant to the discussion. I didn't read the comments, but thought the data presented was interesting.

https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/mlxivl

 

[Betik]

Look at Israel and you can tell if the vaccine is working or not. For that matter you can look at the USA and still make the draw the same conclusion

 

[Mully262]

Look at Israel and you can tell if the vaccine is working or not. For that matter you can look at the USA and still make the draw the same conclusion

The chart would lead one to conclude that the vaccine doesn't work. Since their are so many countries in the lower left corner (little vaccine % and little covid cases). But I don't think the data tells the whole story. They should only include the top 20 covid nations for example. Including countries that have limited covid exposure to begin with really skews the chart. It is missing some variables. I would also prefer to see death rate than infection rate. Interesting chart though.

 

[Betik]

@Mully262 not directed to you at all, but as someone with a decent analytical background I would like to say people need to be VERY careful how they interpret data.