The lives of tens of thousands of people with blood cancer are being put at risk because they’ve not been told the Covid vaccines are less likely to work as well for them.
Blood Cancer UK have called for urgent action from the Government and the NHS after our survey of 1,031 people with blood cancer, carried out online, showed that 81% of respondents said they had not been told by the NHS that their weakened immune systems mean they are less likely to have an immune response to the vaccine.
Unless people with blood cancer know they still may be at risk of contracting Covid, even after having both vaccine doses, they are not in a position to make their own informed decisions about how much risk they should take.
This is a particular issue because Covid is especially dangerous for the 230,000 people in the UK with blood cancer, as their immune systems are less able to fight it off.
People with the condition now account for a higher proportion of Covid admissions to intensive care than earlier in the pandemic, and with the rising infection rate, we are warning that failing to act now could result in unnecessary deaths.
Gemma Peters, Chief Executive of Blood Cancer UK, said: “We have known since the start of the vaccination programme that immunocompromised people were less likely to be protected by the vaccines. Over the last few months of research that we have funded, we have shown that many blood cancers and treatments have a significant impact on vaccine response. So I am really worried that many people with blood cancer have not yet been told this, and so cannot make informed decisions to better protect themselves even after their second jab.
“The Government needs to communicate with every immunocompromised person to tell them that they are at risk, and to make this lifesaving message a key part of its communications. Given the rising infection rate, failing to act quickly could result in unnecessary deaths.”
