Covid vaccination - want to know if you mounted a response to the vaccination?

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There is now a way to see if you responded to the vaccination. Quest Diagnostics Lab came out with a test that will show you either had covid or responded to the vaccination or both (it can’t tell them apart, anything greater than 1 is a response due to one or the other or both; the top of the scale appears to be >20, you need to get >1 to be pos).

It is called the Covid-19 Antibody test (SARS-CoV-2 AB IgG) Semi-quantitative test.

I found the information below (Quest Diagnostics Laboratory website)

https://education.questdiagnostics.com/faq/FAQ219

I also read their Feb. press release which gave information as well. The relevant part of that was: (copy/paste)

“We believe that SARS CoV-2 semi-quantitative serology testing will be an important clinical tool to assess if an individual has mounted an immune response from recent or prior infection or from vaccination,” said Jay G. Wohlgemuth M.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Quest Diagnostics."

If you have or have had a blood cancer the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is doing a study where they use LabCorp to collect blood and do the covid spike protein test (the vaccinations target that as the spike protein on the virus is what is used by the virus to attach to you). I was happy to see I had a response.

If you have had any kind of cancer there are two places I know of with a study: Mayo Clinic and the University of Texas Medical Center at San Antonio. There may be more but these are ones I know of at the moment (without doing an exhaustive search)

Going the study route means the test is free but it also means you have hoops to jump though (and the “cost” typically is access to your medical records). I do not know if the QuestDiagnostics lab test is covered by insurance - it may well be since it also tests for covid. I know that the spike protein antibody test is not covered by insurance as it is only approved for research purposes and not by the FDA for general use (although your mileage may vary or things may change over time).

Anyway cancer patients have much higher odds of dying of covid IF IF IF they are hospitalized with it (solid tumor most studies are around 36% and blood cancers most studies are around 51% although neither have been studied that well and results vary a bit and vary between kinds of cancer in the studies that had enough subjects to look at that). And cancer patients typically have a compromised immune system so respond less well to the vaccination, if at all (again few studies, smaller number of subjects, etc. but results are consistent). As a result these studies to look at response and response over time (eg multiple blood draws over time).

Research is sketchy at this point how well those numbers correspond to protection in the “real world” so this is also why there are studies going on.