covid T cell question

[redbird]

I wrote to my doctor a few days ago, asking whether it would be possible to get a blood test for anti-covid T cells. I heard back today, and there doesn't seem to be:

Maybe?

It looks like you would be better off looking for a test that evaluates the T spike cells. I found two or three companies that offer it, but none are formally FDA approved. I also can't easily tell how to get it done. It is unlikely that your insurance would cover this test because it is not FDA approved.

We also don't know how many T cells would make you immune, though I could imagine you thinking "any T cells is something anyhow!"It looks like you would be better off looking for a test that evaluates the T spike cells. I found two or three companies that offer it, but none are formally FDA approved. I also can't easily tell how to get it done. It is unlikely that your insurance would cover this test because it is not FDA approved.

We also don't know how many T cells would make you immune, though I could imagine you thinking "any T cells is something anyhow!"

She included links to what she found, but I don't think this is worth pursuing further. I will continue with the non-pharmaceutical prevention, masking and ventilation and social distancing. Whether or not the CDC is premature in saying that "most healthy people" can stop masking against covid, I can't.

Comments

[rafiwinters]

How frustrating and disappointing. And the new guidelines seem complicated and confusing to me.

[redbird]

Yes. At least knowing that MS medication interferes with B cells, including covid antibodies, means that I know this guidance for "most healthy people" doesn't apply to me. I wish it wasn't true, but since it is, I'm glad to know.

[rafiwinters]

Yay for knowing, right? The rest of it sucks.

[thistleingrey]

For what little it's worth, my reading agrees with your doctor's response. And there aren't tests so far for B cells, I think.

Though I've squashed at least one mild reinfection so far, I think it was mild because both Reason and I wear masks outside home most of the time (she needs to eat lunch at school)--she was my probable vector. And because T cells take a little while to ramp up once the body registers infection, it *is* hard to tell what'd happen for any given case; I assume I won't always be lucky like that, and I still mask.

[voidampersand]

Is this relevant? Robust T-Cell Responses in Anti-CD20-Treated Patients Following COVID-19 Vaccination I don't know if your treatment targets CD20. From the paper:

Immunosuppressed patients are at higher risk of developing a severe COVID-19 [1–3] but were not included in pivotal studies evaluating the efficacy of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. Therefore, there is an urgent need to decipher humoral and cellular immune responses induced by mRNA vaccines in these populations

It looks to me like you should be in a study.

[redbird]

That looks both relevant and encouraging, thank you!

My MS drug is ocrelizumab, one of the two this study looked at.

[sabotabby]

Fucking insane that ordinary people without medical degrees are supposed to navigate this level of complexity just to not die.

[redbird]

I think they expect us to never leave the house again, never mind that not everyone has that option even if they were willing to take it (I know one person, my extreme introvert long-distance partner, who might be okay with that, but they aren't immune-compromised so it doesn't apply).

[sabotabby]

They do. The thing is, choice is not actually a thing in a society where food and housing are commodities. I'm not 100% sure of why I have no immune system right now, but I'm willing to bet that it's because of the arthritis meds I'm on, which are what is making it possible for me to go to work. I could go off them and maybe my immune system would bounce back, but then I'd be in crippling pain at work. Not going to work isn't an option because I'd lose the house. So maybe if they said, "okay, we will meet your needs and you don't have to work but you can never leave the house," that might be a reasonable tradeoff, but it's like, "no, you still need to risk your life at work, it is up to you to evaluate that risk, and if you choose to not work, you get to starve. Also you're not allowed a social life."