September 29, 2023 Columns by Ed Tobias What you need to know about COVID-19, flu, and RSV vaccines My wife and I got the latest COVID-19 vaccine the other day, the first of three vaccines we’ll be getting this fall. The others are the seasonal flu vaccine and the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine. This was my sixth COVID-19 vaccine, and I’ve received a…
June 30, 2023 Columns by Ed Tobias My COVID-19 antibodies are still in my blood, but does it matter? It’s been almost two and a half years since my first COVID-19 vaccine ā eight months since my most recent booster ā and my COVID-19 antibodies seem to still be doing their thing. I know this because, after having nine test tubes of blood drawn, the lab results…
October 21, 2022 Columns by Ed Tobias Time for COVID-19 Boosters and Seasonal Flu Shots It’s the time of the season. Every year around this time, I get a seasonal flu shot. I’ve been doing this for as long as I can remember, certainly all of my adult life. But this year is a little different. There are now three flu vaccines preferentially recommended…
September 6, 2022 News by Margarida Maia, PhD Research Collaboration to Study COVID-19 Vaccine Dosing, Timing The Accelerated Cure Project (ACP) for multiple sclerosis (MS) is teaming up with Quest Diagnostics to study how MS patients respond to COVID-19 vaccines. āUnderstanding the immune response to the COVID-19 vaccine doses in a longer-term study in people with MS will provide tremendous insights into not…
July 11, 2022 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: COVID-19, Predicting Progression, Early Treatment, Estriol Higher COVID-19 Risk Tied to 2 MS Therapies, Even With Vaccination According to this study, people being treated with Ocrevus had 3.6 times the risk of a breakthrough COVID-19 infection compared with people being treated with most other disease-modifying therapies. For those treated with Gilenya, the risk was increased…
May 13, 2022 Columns by Ed Tobias Hunt for EBV Vaccine Gets a Boost From NIH The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is joining the search for a vaccine to attack the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). This is a big deal for people with multiple sclerosis, because carrying the virus is thought to play a significant role in the development of MS. In fact,…
April 6, 2022 News by Marisa Wexler, MS #AAN2022 ā Data from Multiple Trials Show Kesimpta’s Safety, Efficacy Treatment with Kesimpta (ofatumumab) for more than three years revealed no new or unexpected safety findings, and continued to slow disability progression and prevent the development of new brain lesions in people with relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS), according to new clinical trial data. Information from another trial also…
January 31, 2022 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: COVID-19 Booster, EBV Treatment, Childhood MS Risks, Vitamin D COVID-19 Booster May Benefit Patients on Anti-CD20 Therapy After multiple reports of how Gilenya and anti-CD20 MS medications reduce the efficacy of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, here’s more evidence that a booster shot may improve that protection. The researchers report “modestly increased levels” of antiāSARS-CoV-2 antibodies after a third…
January 21, 2022 Columns by Ed Tobias An Epstein-Barr Virus Primer for MS Patients You may have heard about the research that’s just been published about the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and multiple sclerosis (MS). The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health study reports that being infected by EBV raises the risk of developing MS by 32 times. This isn’t a small or…
November 22, 2021 News by Margarida Maia, PhD COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects With MS Similar to Public at Large Side effects upon receiving the COVID-19 vaccine in people withĀ multiple sclerosis (MS) are similar to those reported in the general population, and patients on certain disease-modifying therapies are less likely to have vaccine reactions,Ā a survey-based study found. The findings provide āa reassuring pictureā for those who feel hesitant about…
November 5, 2021 Columns by Ed Tobias I’m Grateful for My COVID-19 Booster Shot I’m hurtin’ a little today. I have mild muscle aches, a bit more fatigue than usual, and dragging legs. It could just be a bad MS day, or it could be the result of my COVID-19 booster shot a couple days ago.Ā I received a third shot of the Moderna…
October 29, 2021 Columns by John Connor I’m Back in the Desert Without a Horse Well, that was fun. I’ve got my party hat on from a recent birthday (of course I have one, itās my trusty trilby! See my avatar above) and have been out and about having a lot of fun. I splurged by spending time with family and friends, ’cause…
August 20, 2021 Columns by Ed Tobias Do People With MS Need a 3rd Vaccine Shot? Now that a third COVID-19 vaccine shot has been approved in the U.S. for immunocompromised people, and vaccine boosters are expected to be available to the general publicĀ sometime after Sept. 20, Walgreens and CVS have lost no time in offering the additional shot to those who qualify.
June 18, 2021 Columns by Ed Tobias Do High Antibody Levels Mean I’m Protected Against COVID-19? Is 2,500 my magical COVID-19 number? At my annual MS checkup a week ago, my neurologist included a blood test for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Antibodies are proteins in the blood that protect the body from being attacked by viruses, bacteria, and the like. In this case, the blood test was searching…
May 14, 2021 Columns by Ed Tobias Efficacy of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine Varies by DMT, Study Finds Are you being treated with a disease-modifying therapy (DMT) and wondering how it might affect the efficacy of an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine? If so, a recent study may provide some clarity. The study, published in Therapeutic Advances in Neurological Disorders, looked at 125 MS patients either being treated with…
April 16, 2021 Columns by Jamie Hughes The Value of Looking Ahead Next week, I will be celebrating my second āquarantine birthday,ā which is both amazing and sad. I honestly had no idea weād still be dealing with COVID-19 for more than a year, and what a strange and perplexing time it has been. I think the thing that has hit me…
April 16, 2021 Columns by John Connor An Upbeat MS Column for You Lucky People The trouble with a degenerative disease is that things only get worse. In the long-gone days of my youth, I somehow wrangled myself into being an arts critic. Wizened journalists imparted the lore that a bad show was much easier to write than a rave. Satirical barbs are far more…
March 22, 2021 News by Margarida Maia, PhD National MS Society Encourages Patients to Get COVID-19 Vaccine Most patients with relapsing and progressive forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) are encouraged to get vaccinated against COVID-19 ā and any vaccine of three authorized for use in the U.S. is safe to receive ā according to recent guidance from the National MS Society. Despite mounting evidence that…
March 12, 2021 Columns by Ed Tobias My 2nd COVID-19 Vaccine Shot Caused No Harsh Side Effects Last week, my wife and I were back in Bowie, Maryland, for our second shot of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. It was a sunny and warm afternoon after a windy, cold, and wet month. We hoped that was a good omen. Nina, the same pharmacist who gave us our…
March 4, 2021 Columns by Jennifer (Jenn) Powell Learning to Ride Along With the Ebbs and Flows of Multiple Sclerosis I am uncomfortable amid ambiguity and unknowns. I find myself searching for rationale when, at times, none exists. I crave clarity yet mostly exist amid the fogginess of MS. I live this way literally and figuratively. My lack of clarity grows with the wait for the COVID-19 vaccine. When I…
February 12, 2021 Columns by John Connor Britain Leads the World in Two Types of Jabbing I was 6 years old when British boxer Henry Cooper knocked Cassius Clay on his bottom. (It was that long ago, folks ā 1963. This was before Clay’s religious conversion and consequent name change to Muhammad Ali.) Unfortunately, Clay was literally saved by the bell. I remember dashing around…
February 12, 2021 Columns by Ed Tobias The First COVID-19 Shot Is Finally in My Arm It’s a good thing my wife, Laura, is persistent. Thanks to her tenacity, we’ve both been able to get our first shots of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. According to the pharmacist who gave us our shots, in two weeks we should be about 60% protected from the SARS-CoV-2 virus…
January 15, 2021 Columns by Ed Tobias COVID-19 Vaccine Gets Thumbs-up from National MS Society The advice issued Tuesday by the U.S.-based National Multiple Sclerosis Society about COVID-19 vaccination couldn’t be clearer: “Get your vaccine as soon as it is available to you.” New MS Society guidelines say that the two COVID-19 vaccines currently available in the U.S., both of which use an mRNA…
December 11, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias Can I Get a COVID-19 Vaccine If I Have MS? Do you plan to get a COVID-19 vaccine? I do.Ā One is now available to some residents of the U.K., and approval in the U.S. of one or more likely will happen soon. Though the U.S.-based National Multiple Sclerosis Society has said only that people with MS should consider…