Immune suppressed/deficient patients are not good candidates for vaccines in the first place, since they would be unlikely to mount an effective immune response.
I think tpmx's point is that the virus would also be less dangerous for them, so getting the vaccine has less chance of having a net benefit for the individual.
Yeah, it was, but I think the argument that the vaccine is a safer option for this crowd is also a pretty persuasive argument.
I'm not exactly in this crowd (I'm 43) but given what I now know about the prevalence of scary long term covid-19 issues ("long haulers") in young people, I would take this vaccine in a heart beat "even" if I were young.
That sounds backwards. Shouldn't those with weakened immune response be first in line for the vaccine? The vaccine would give them a boost. Those with strong immune response have a better chance of fighting off the virus.
Marjomax isn't saying that those with weakened immune responses don't need protection against the virus. They are saying vaccines do not work well in immunosuppressed people, the vaccine will not necessarily provide protection.
Vaccines work by triggering the immune system in the first place. If your immune system is not functioning normally, the vaccine may work differently or not work.
I think it's more complicated than just as a blanket "won't work". But, yeah, more complicated means more complicated -- different vaccines may be infffective, or require a higher dose, or even be harmful to immunosuppressed people. As far as the study, it would probably require a separate study focused on immunocompromised people? The fact that these are new mRNA-style vaccines is possibly relevant, maybe we know even less? Obviously we're in a rush here, there's lots of studies that would be really good to do that haven't been done yet, all that's been done is like a basic "normal people everyone" study. From which immunocompromised people were excluded because they are likely to respond to the vaccine differently, so need a different study design etc.
(And btw, THIS is what "herd immunity' is about. If enough people are immune (say from a vaccine), then there aren't enough carriers to pass it around the population, so those who AREN'T immune (possibly because they are immunocompromised and the vaccine wouldn't work on them or would be dangerous) still have much reduced chance of getting infected. Because, yeah there are people who can't take vaccines because they would be dangerous or ineffective, but may still be at high risk for complications from the virus)
Vaccines work by essentially teaching your immune system to recognize a pathogen. If your immune system is in a very weakened state, it likely will not 'learn', and even if it does, it may not be in any condition to fight the infection, even if it recognizes it as such. Of course, things are much more complicated, but in people with severe immuno-deficiency (such as advanced AIDS or people who are actively taking immune suppressants) a vaccine will not have any effect (some kinds of vaccines even risk infecting that person with the disease, though I beleiev this is not the case with any of the Covid19 vaccines).
