Six months wait

My GP says he has sought official advice and that is as follows:- immunosuppressed patients should have an autumn jab of Covid vaccine along with the booster given to ordinary healthy patients but the extra jab to allow for our reduced ability to produce antibodies should then be delayed for 6 months.
This means no extra protection is being offered to us during the coming winter. It is significant that the gap between my getting second and third jabs in 2021 was only just over six months anyway, so we are not being offered very much.

Have any of us who are on hydroxycarbamide had an antibody test? It would be helpful to the rest of us to know. Jumbo4

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Hi , I am on hydroxy, and got an antibody test due to being in the ZOE study , and after first az vax I had none , but a couple of months after 2nd I did have some. Of course it’s purely a yes / no test , so I don’t know if I have enough to be useful, so I am still being very careful

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The whole thing has been a bit of a muddle but I get the gist of it now. We’re allowed the third dose now which is a full dose but the boost dose needs to be (now) 5 months after any other dose you last had. The booster is a full dose of Pfizer or a half dose of Moderna whereas the third dose is a full dose of either.

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Hi, I might have misunderstood the question but if not:

For most people 2 vaccine doses are enough to give good (though not infallible) immunity for around 5-6 months, after which a booster is required to “top up” immunity, which will be waning by then.

So they have 2 initial “doses” + a “booster” (top up) after 5-6 months.

For a a small number of conditions (ours included) there is a very significant chance of not having a full antibody response after 2 vaccine doses, hence we need a “third dose” (rather than a booster) in order to get the same base level of immunity as others will have after just 2 doses.

So we need 3 initial “doses” + a top-up “booster” 5-6 months after that.

I’m not sure if that’s what you were asking but if so, I hope that helps :slight_smile:

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@Chapsticks
That’s how I understand it too.
I had my “3rd jab” the procedure at the walk in centre was very different for 3rd jab, and booster people.
and I also had “3rd dose” written on my card, not Booster
you can get the 3rd jab 8 weeks after the second, you do not have to wait 6 months
I did have to go to a walking centre, as I couldn’t book it online.

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