Spare a thought for those still vulnerable when social distancing ends

‘All of us who have failed – whether knowingly or unknowingly – to respond to the vaccine will be at increased risk if the rest of the population cease social distancing and stop wearing face masks.’ Photograph: Tass

Your report (Ministers plan to end social distancing in England on 19 July, 1 July) should be a cause for dismay for a large group of vulnerable people – myself included – who, because they are immunocompromised, have failed to raise a significant antibody response despite having received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

This applies to patients receiving immunosuppressant treatment for a range of autoimmune diseases and cancers, and the recipients of organ transplants. A great many of those people will not presently be aware that they may not be protected by the vaccine: quantitative antibody testing is not available other than to patients participating in trials.

All of us who have failed – whether knowingly or unknowingly – to respond to the vaccine will be at increased risk if the rest of the population cease social distancing and stop wearing face masks. Until such time as our predicament is more widely recognised and a solution can be found, we shall have to run that risk or revert to self-exclusion from society.
Pam Dean
Flamstead, Hertfordshire

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