Ask the Doctor Question:
What are the updated guidelines regarding safe activities for CLL patients on watch and wait who have had the third Pfizer vaccine and whose antibody test level was greater than 2500 after the third vaccine?
Answer: There are not really any updated CDC guidelines per se for those who have antibody tests that show they have responded well to the vaccine. That is probably in part due to CDC not being proponents of antibody testing.
That being said, Dr. Koffman had a great response as well to his booster and he is still of the mindset that CLL patients should continue taking strict precautions for the time being while we are still in the midst of the pandemic (and many breakthrough cases) and act as if they are not vaccinated. Mainly due to severe COVID being so much more deadly for those with CLL who contract the disease, and immune systems being compromised in general when needing to respond to any infection.
Everyone must perform their own risk assessment and talk about this subject with their CLL expert physician to determine what the acceptable level of risk is for them. Here is an article written about assessing level of risk (those with CLL should assume they are in the column to the left).
Also, if you haven’t already, please complete the COVID-19 Action Plan checklists which can be found here.
