All over-70s, care home residents and staff in Hull, who accepted first Covid jab offer, will have received one by this weekend.
Then again...when did anything from China last 10 years? https://www.express.co.uk/news/worl...d-Health-organization-coronavirus-news-update
not being clever or arsey but i don't understand how you came to the conclusion that the nature of his treatment would greatly reduce the chances of him suffering severe symptoms. as you no doubt know the biological drugs for psoriasis for example target the skins immune response and as far as im aware try to leave the bodies other defences alone. and i suspect most biologicals dont shotgun the whole immune system but target specific areas. i'm on a monthly biological (amongst other medication) and was told to isolate but in the summer i bottled it and stopped taking my immuno suppressant med so as to be able to fight any covid attack. plus the side effects were chest infections and flu like symptoms!!!! . when i decided to resume taking it - cue sods law, soon after i tested positive for covid. due to the compromised immune system i expected more chance of worse or even severe symptoms? not less chance.
You're quite right that the biologics are much more accurately targeted on specific immune responses whilst the older methods like Methotrexate had a much wider effect that really knocked the immune system for six. My understanding is that Infliximab is certainly used for the treatment of at least two common autoimmune diseases (Psoriasis affecting the skin and Crohns Disease affecting the bowel) - I believe it targets T-cells and, as it is effective against more than one disease, we guessed that it might also be effective against the severe T-cell response that seems to lead to the collapse of multiple organs in the terminal stages of Covid 19. This is only our hypothesis though and, as far as I know, hasn't been put to any real test. I think that Covid 19 seems to progress through stages where the body first tries to clear it with the usual blood borne antibody response but, if it persists, an enhanced T-cell response is triggered and can create havoc - this is the point at which people being treated with biologics might gain an advantage. I wouldn't have thought that it would have been a good idea to drop your immunosuppressant medication without checking with your medical team though - we've always found that that can have a rebound effect and the underlying condition can re-appear with a vengeance. The bottom line in all of this though is to follow whatever the current medical advice is - first of all keep safe through self isolation and/or careful social distancing and check with your medics for current recommendations. I'm pretty sure that all consultants are currently advising patients that vaccination is highly effective. Our son did have an annoying (but temporary) response to the Pfizer vaccine but our daughter, who is just starting with Infliximab for a different disease, had the Pfizer vaccine at Castle Hill last week and, as far as I know, has not had any side effects. I hope that you managed to get over your Covid experience without any severe problems and that your treatment is now progressing normally and well - the auto-immune diseases are, as a group, rotten.
i struggled with covid for nearly 2 weeks in a "i'm poorly ive got man flu stylie", but not at any time did i feel like calling for an ambulance. but well over a month later i still have persistent symptoms that wont go away. i was on methotrexate and after 5 years i bottled it as i didnt fancy a liver biopsy so went on cyclosporin. after a short time i felt unwell and a visit to the doctors close to passing out my bp was 190 over 126!! i came off it but ever since then my bp has been high and am on medication . around 2010 i went on Ustekinumab - stelara but last year my arthritis and aches and pains just got too much so i went on secukinumab cosentyx. ( which targets chrohns and psoriasis) funny you should mention rebound cos with steroid creams ive experienced this but with cosentyx i have stopped and started willy nilly and gone 4 months without it and normally i would have expected to have been hospitalised (done that twice in the 90's 2000's) but for some reason nowts happened. and its funny cos my wifes workmates hubby did the same and has it stockpiled in his fridge. funny things these biologicals and i think they are that new that even the experts dont fully understand them. im not a completely daft lad even though i come across as one on here and i might have to google T-cells just to see what the craic is. but its a bit like beer, recreational drugs and good new travels. half the time you dont need to know what exactly/chemically/geographically is occuring . you can just lay back and enjoy the trip. btw if your son ever visits hospital he might be very unlucky. my wifes ward sees a lot of patients with crohns. not atm though because her ward is still covid (with 3 deaths yesterday.) i am assuming he has crohns...
Our son has had really bad Psoriasis since being very young. He first started on biologics about 5 years ago and they've made a huge difference to him. Our daughter has just been diagnosed with Crohn's disease and, after a couple of months on steroids, has just moved on to the loading doses of Infliximab - the early signs are very promising and she's looking forwards to trying some of her favourite foods again - beans are high on her list.
