Vaccine-covid19

I would agree with Alistair.When I recently met with my specialist he indicated  how important it was to take the influenza vaccine now on offer and also to take the Covid vaccine as soon as approved and available.

When I was initially diagnosed with CML my haematologist was quite blunt and said your DNA has been compromised and there is an issue in terms of the ordering of your chromosomes but we have a new drug that will prevent excess proteins being produced and will regularise your while cell count etc.As we know this was the original branded Glivec and involves targeted molecular therapy and was new and ground breaking technology when launched some 20 years ago.

There are about six different approaches to the current development of Covid vaccines some using more traditional vaccine technology and others using new innovative technology (previously used to try to develop a cancer vaccine) of the mRNA approach;worldwide there are about 50 attempts to produce a Covid vaccine.In UK initially we will be offered the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine now approved and being administered in hospitals as from today 8 December;however on order are large numbers of the Astra Zenica Oxford vaccine and if and when approved some us might be offered this one-it is a more traditional approach using the common cold virus in chimpanzees I believe.

Those of us at risk such as ourselves will be high on the list of priority groups but I judge that we will not be called in for the vaccine until early 2021. Some 15 years ago on dx for CML I trusted the science and the outcome was amazing so I have no qualms about trusting medical science being offered to us now .

I hope that this helps

Regards

John

Live vaccines are not recommended for those diagnosed with CML. The current (Pfizer/biontech) vaccine being rolled out now in the UK is not a live vaccine. However, it seems the news today is for those with significant history of allergic reaction to vaccines should not be considered eligible at this early point. 

David Fitzgerald is taking part in a webinar with Pfizer today as a representative of CML Sg and therefore CML patients. Hopefully he will get a chance to ask questions about any possible risk for CML patients and this vaccine, but as it is not a 'live' vaccine I cannot foresee any problems unless you have a serious problem with allergies in general.

Sandy