Thread by @drlennardlee

1/x 🧵 ***NEW RESEARCH 👨‍🔬 *** About #immunocompromised #forgotten500k #cancer. It's a BIG paper, analysing the global data 🗺️. Answers the question- how big is the issue of absent immune responses following covid vaccines. @BrJCancer by @michaeltilby nature.com/articles/s4141… 💛💚

2/x Why did they do it? Because 1⃣ cancer patients are at high risk from covid 📈 2⃣ Many don't get an immune response to vaccines 💉 3⃣ They wanted to find the scale of the problem 💥. So they decided to go global! 🌐

3/x. The team searched 3065 papers published from the start of vaccination to March 2022. They looked at third dose boosters 💉. They looked across all cancer types. They found 15 studies encompassing 1205 patients🧑‍🤝‍🧑. The largest global review 🌍

4/x what did they find? Not wonderful news. Whilst many patients with cancers do have antibody responses, some do not. Patients affected are those with blood cancers @bloodcancer_uk . B-cell targeted therapy is not great either. 🧐😐🫢

5/x What do the authors conclude? 🙂🤔😳 Similar to all international studies, they note that prophylactic antibody therapies have a role to play. This is effectively #evusheld, the #immunocompromised vaccine alternative.

6/x Why does this matter that this is a UK paper? Because 32 other countries are protecting the #immunocompromised this winter with this drug. But not the UK. Decision making is stalled until next year.

7/x. There are half a million immunocompromised people in the UK. Many are still shielding, still in isolation, still unable to work, see friends or hug loved ones. They are #forgotten500k, unheard and calling on us to notice. 💙🧡

8/x They are asking for equality in terms of COVID-19 protection by Christmas 🎄🧑‍🎄. They also want us to know that telling them to keep shielding to protect themselves, or having a policy of "pay privately or get nothing", isn't very British 💰 A fair ask

9/x I'm sure they'll like to thank @michaeltilby 🧑‍⚕️for delivering another massive global study 🌍of cancer patients who are #immunocompromised. We appreciate everyone putting the data 💻 out there to flag ⛳️ the problem. Whether @RishiSunak 🇬🇧 @SteveBarclay 🇬🇧 leads is unclear.

ps. Looking forwards to seeing anyone online later today or in person. 1330 🧡💛💚💜🤎😃😃😃. . Thanks @claremenglish and @MarkOak04974342 for organising.

pps. @michaeltilby is from @uhbtrust, the largest trust in the country. University Hospitals Birmingham. Hence the beautiful picture on page 1. He was also on the national leadership programme and a very talented cancer doctor.