Covid vaccine and T1D, what are your views?

[O_DP_T1]

As per title, will you be taking? How do you feel about it etc.

 

[In Response]

My diabetes management is good, I continue to exercise, I am not over (or under weight), a have not been ill. I am lucky to have a job which allows me to work from home where I live with someone I love (who has also been working from home)
Type 1 has made no difference in my mind to my risk or whether I will take the vaccine or not.

 

[Robinredbreast]

I would be happy to be vaccinated against Covid 19. Type 1, 31 years.

 

[KK123]

Yes. As with any other vaccine (ie flu), I will be taking it when it's offered. This is a personal view obviously, but I have no qualms about it.

 

[NicoleC1971]

No safety qualms but do not see the need either from a personal POV (49, female with average blood sugars who keeps fit, robust immune system) or from a need to protect anyone else (we do not yet know it stops transmission so expect instructions to continue with the masks etc). It is now an endemic virus which has done its worst back in April - see Ivor Cummins; the Tiger Horn as a good analogy for the viral situation:

 

[Circuspony]

I'll have it as soon as I'm called by the GP. Friend's husband (age 55 no health conditions) currently seriously ill with covid so I've seen what it can do.

 

[Hopeful34]

I'll have it, as have other underlying health issues.

 

[Rowan Morrison]

Inject me with whatever they've got.

 

[CliveT1]

- T1D
- 55
- A school teacher wife
- Teenage kids who think they’re bullet proof and wouldn’t think twice about coughing over you
- Critical job in an industry badly affected by Covid
- Mortgage, pension, blah blah

On balance, I think a vaccine is far lower risk

The base of this vaccine has actually been around for years, it’s just taken 10 months to refine it to the current virus strain. It’s, not new, it’s tested as safe...

 

[sleepster]

I take any and all vaccines offered to me, so yes please to the covid vaccine
I don't want to die* from covid ta very much.

*or get organ damage, or long covid, or any other nasty stuff that it can cause

 

[EllieM]

I take a flu jab on the grounds that I don't want to be hospitalised because I'm too sick to handle my diabetes so I will take a covid jab when offered (late next year??? Who knows as I'm lucky enough to be in covid freeish new zealand). I certainly won't be travelling overseas till a vaccine is available for me.

 

[TashT1]

I’ll be getting in line as soon as I can. I trust the regulators, watch their briefings they communicate vary openly & clearly about the vaccine.

I caught the Australia flu in 2017, I was ill for a month & I had the flu vaccine months before, I now have asthma as a result. I still go back for the flu vaccine every year because they’re not 100% protection. I mention this because once the vaccine programme starts we’re going to see a lot of ‘I got vaccinated & still got COVID’ stories, the press will hunt out that 5% because it’s better click bait than 95% successes.

 

[KK123]

It's good to see most of us are in favour of it. I imagine when insulin was first discovered there were naysayers. I am all for vaccines for children for example, (notwithstanding some children are not suitable for them), antibiotics, medicines and ALL the jabs created for our health. I am not naive, I know there have been mistakes with various drugs in the past but would we all wish to go back to the 'good old days'? What I detest is those who refuse a vaccine (without a health reason) yet expect others to have them and to take any associated risk, yet REFUSE to have their own kids or themselves vaccinated in the hope 'everybody else does'. In my opinion, selfish.

 

[tim2000s]

I'm participating in one of the trials, so you can obviously understand my point of view on this...

 

[KK123]

I'm participating in one of the trials, so you can obviously understand my point of view on this...

Thank you Tim!

 

[DCUKMod]

There's another trial just gone into recruitment in Leicester, for a Janssen prospect. To be fair, the trial is at a number of sites across the country, but I just happen to know about the recruitment at Leicester.

I'm sure if anyone fancies throwing their hat into the ring, it could be interesting.

https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4451

 

[Hill28]

As per title, will you be taking? How do you feel about it etc.

One of the theories about how diabetes type 1 develops, is that your own immune system attacks your insulin producing cells. This could particularly happen after your immune system is triggered by a flu or by another disease.

I have no medical background, but I did some research on how RNA vaccins work. As far as I understand, a RNA vaccin makes some of your own cells look like the Corona virus, which triggers your immune system to destroy those cells. Afterwards your immune system should be able to tackle also real Corona virus parts, in case of an actual infection.

I don’t like the part that the Immune system is triggered by the RNA vaccin to destroy some of your own cells, after my immune system already decided to destroy my insulin cells. Could the vaccin not trigger the immune system of T1s to destroy more cells than we want?

btw I‘m not with those crazy anti vaxers, but I’m just a bit worried as this seems to be the first rna based vaccin and I wonder if the long term effects and effects on t1s (and possibly people with other immune diseases) are known well enough.

 

[KK123]

One of the theories about how diabetes type 1 develops, is that your own immune system attacks your insulin producing cells. This could particularly happen after your immune system is triggered by a flu or by another disease.

I have no medical background, but I did some research on how RNA vaccins work. As far as I understand, a RNA vaccin makes some of your own cells look like the Corona virus, which triggers your immune system to destroy those cells. Afterwards your immune system should be able to tackle also real Corona virus parts, in case of an actual infection.

I don’t like the part that the Immune system is triggered by the RNA vaccin to destroy some of your own cells, after my immune system already decided to destroy my insulin cells. Could the vaccin not trigger the immune system of T1s to destroy more cells than we want?

btw I‘m not with those crazy anti vaxers, but I’m just a bit worried as this seems to be the first rna based vaccin and I wonder if the long term effects and effects on t1s (and possibly people with other immune diseases) are known well enough.

I thought I read that this Covid vaccine actually used the 'real' virus rather than a mimic? I know people can have several other autoimmune conditions as well as type 1 but a system that attacks the insulin cells does NOT mean that the rest of your autoimmune system isn't working just fine. As for 'could it', yes, who knows!

 

[Jools_Carling]

Bring it on. It's all about the balance of risk. Risk getting it and death. Risk a dodgy vaccine and death or ...
Death from COVID does not sound a good option.
Dodgy vaccine death or ...... does not sound good but at least you've tried (and family could benefit from the windfall)
And/or vaccine works a treat and in about 8 to 12 months time it's all 'forgotten' about.
Medical professionals are not driven by the same motives as politicians. They are not going to sell you an "oven ready meal" for it to be found missing 50% of the ingredients to be effective, still frozen and full of more evil little surprises than a box full of virus.

 

[NicoleC1971]

I thought I read that this Covid vaccine actually used the 'real' virus rather than a mimic? I know people can have several other autoimmune conditions as well as type 1 but a system that attacks the insulin cells does NOT mean that the rest of your autoimmune system isn't working just fine. As for 'could it', yes, who knows!

The Pfizer jab is a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine.

Conventional vaccines are produced using weakened forms of the virus, but mRNAs use only the virus’s genetic code.

An mRNA vaccine is injected into the body where it enters cells and tells them to create antigens. These antigens are recognised by the immune system and prepare it to fight coronavirus.


No actual virus is needed to create an mRNA vaccine. This means the rate at which it can be produced is dramatically accelerated.

SO all vaccines aim to trigger an immune response and it is true that exposure to a virus sometimes precedes the diagnosis of an autoimmune condition such as t1 diabetes.
Since my own beta cells are already b*g*ered I don't think I would be too concerned.
However my risk of dying from Covid is tiny so I'd rather give my vaccine to someone at number 7 in the queue who might me a lot more scared of it than me.
By the time we get 'herd immunity' the virus will have seasonally gone away again so I suspect we will only see ifs' efficacy in the Autumn Winter cold/flu/rona season 0f 2021.