The feeling of relief was great as Brown returned from the vaccine centre. Her husband, Terry, 61, took time off from his job as a supervisor at a heavy machinery factory to drive her to her second Covid-19 vaccine at a Gateshead community centre. In the car, she told her partner that she felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Terry remembers that she said at least we have that done. "We will be OK."
It was April of 2021. The last year and a half has been spent shielding indoors for government advice. She was careful. There was a Covid station on the breakfast counter that included bottles of antibacterial gel and disposable face masks. When family came to visit, a mask-wearing Michele would put them in the furthest corner of the living room. Kim Brown, her daughter, lives in Durham. She would say, 'You might have the coronies!' I do not want coronies. You are not giving me that.
After her vaccinations, she relaxed a bit. She stopped wearing a mask indoors when her family visited. She was still not going out much because of her arthritis. Most of the time, he stayed at home and chatted with Kim on the phone. She didn't have a clue what was in them when they arrived. When the news came, she sighed. Kim says that she would say that the poor people were going up. Those poor families.
It is not clear how Covid got into the house or when she went for a doctor's appointment. It doesn't matter. When she was bitten, it wrecked her body. Her body had failed to respond to the Covid-19 vaccine because her immune system had been suppressed by the drugs she took to manage her arthritis. The vaccine didn't work for her.
Terry is bewildered and distraught and he never heard of "immunocompromised". We never did.
Terry Brown is the husband of a woman. Christopher Owens is a photographer for The Guardian.
The eldest of seven children, Michele was born in 1962, in the village of Stannington. She was an infant when her parents split. Her father won custody of her, but she was left with her grandmother. Kim says that she had a difficult childhood. She said her kids wouldn't have the same childhood. We did not. We had everything we wanted. Love. Affection. We did not want anything.
Terry lived on the same cul-de-sac as the other two people. Everyone knew each other on the street. The boys and girls played football. Everything happened outdoors. He remembers the first time he saw her. She was sitting on a wall. Dressed casually. No makeup, jeans. Terry was coming back from a bar. She was becoming lovely to him. He tried to talk to her, but she didn't want him there.
They were watching each other in the pub. They were pushed together by a friend. She asked if it was about time you two went on a date. Terry remembers. Why would she want to date me? I was hitting my weight. Their first date was in February of 1982. Kim had already been born by this point, but her father was not in the picture. In 1988 there was a son for Terry andMichele.
Back then, Michele was happy. She spent most of her time on the dance floor instead of working in the club. She got her aunt to modify the clothes she picked up in the charity store. She wore headphones as she fell asleep. Her tastes ranged from Slipknot to George Michael. Kim says that she had a thing for George Michael. We would tell her that he was gay and she would say, 'So what!' I will convert him.
Terry and Michele are married. The photo was taken by the Brown family.
He worked in a factory, as a cleaner, and as a warehouse. She was clever, but not fulfilled. She could have had a good career if she had applied herself when she was younger. She was angry. People would call her when they were on pub quizzes, to cheat, because she was so good at general knowledge. She loved animals. She wrote a letter to the management complaining that the cages were too small. She was obsessed with watching a family of gorillas in a Japanese zoo. Terry would talk about what the gorillas were up to when she came home from work.
Her health began to decline in her 20s. She had a low white blood cell count and was diagnosed first with leukopenia. As a key worker, Terry was sometimes lonely, and so she would call Kim in the middle of the day, and stay on the phone for four or five hours at a time. They were more like family. Kim says they would talk about everything. You should talk to your friends about it. She was hilarious.
The matriarch of the family was fierce and uncompromising, despite her health issues. Kim says that she was the boss. Everything went through her. Sometimes she could be mean. Kim says that she had a short temper. Everything was black and white. You couldn't explain to her. You would have to wait until she calmed down if she had a bee in her bonnet. But Michele had a lot of instincts. Terry used to ask her if she had studied black magic. She was good at picking people up. I would always tell her that she should give people a chance. She would usually be proved right after she said no. How she knew that would be fascinating to me.
It is difficult for Kim to accept that her mother is no longer with us. She says that she had a strong character. I can't understand why she isn't there. Kim called her afterMichele died. Kim says that her heart sank when the number didn't connect.
The Covid-19 vaccine has prevented up to 24.1m infections and 126,800 deaths in England. The Pfizer or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is effective against hospitalisation with the Delta variant. The effectiveness of the vaccines in protecting against the Omicron variant is not yet known.
The Covid-19 vaccine is safe and effective, but it can't work on everyone. Some people with compromised immune systems will not have a good immune response to the vaccine, meaning they won't be able to fight off the Covid-19 virus. For these people, life in post-lockdown Britain is full of risk and trepidation, and they are not protected from Covid-19 by the immunity a vaccine would provide, and nor are they able to avoid the pandemic entirely, given that tens of thousands of new infections are being reported every
There are three reasons why people may be immunosuppressed. They have a genetic condition that makes them have a primary problem with their immune system. They have a disease that causes their immune system to be underpowered. They are taking medication to treat an underlying condition that suppresses their immune system. This final category most likely belonged to Michele. She took the medication rituximab to manage her arthritis. She was taking other medicines to treat mental health problems and diabetes, but none of them have the same effect.
Your immune system overreacts when you have Rheumatoid arthritis, according to the rheumatologist Dr. Wallace. It is attacking them because it knows that it shouldn't think of things like its own joints as a danger. That is the reason we use medicines to suppress that process. The immune system doesn't work as well when we do that. Wallace has been watching for breakthrough infections in patients with autoimmune conditions. He says that people who receive rituximab are at risk. Rituximab is sold in Europe as MabThera byRoche.
A research team led by Prof Iain McInnes of Glasgow University is studying the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccine in people with compromised immune systems. The initial findings from the Octave study showed that about 9% of people with compromised immune systems failed to generate any antibodies to Covid-19, and a further 29% failed to produce the same level of antibodies as a healthy person. Rituximab was specifically identified as an immunosupressant in the study.
But he had no idea. She didn't know what impact immunosuppressant drugs had on Covid-19 vaccine. The Department of Health and Social Care wrote to her in March of 2021, telling her that shielding would be stopped on April 1st due to the fact that most of the people who were clinically extremely vulnerable had been vaccine. There was no mention of the fact that people with compromised immune systems might not be protected by the vaccine, and should consider extra precautions to keep themselves safe.
People with suppressed immune systems have been ignored. We are a small part of the population.
Labour Member of Parliament, Vicky Foxcroft.
Some people were very aware that the vaccines might not work, and were very scared. For a lot of others, the government has said that everything is fine. Crack on. Do what you were doing. Foxcroft has been advocating for people who have been affected by the swine flu. She says that they have been overlooked. We are a small part of the population and inconvenient. It is still not acceptable.
She tells me that she hears from people who are forced back to work. Although the administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are encouraging employees to work from home where possible, the advice has yet to be reinstated despite the spread of the Omicron variant. "I would like to see the guidance changed for employers so that people are able to work from home if necessary."
When shielding was paused on April 1, vulnerable people who were immunocompromised lost financial support that helped them stay at home.
Kim and baby Terence were with Michele in 1988. The photo was taken by the Brown family.
She doesn't feel safe in the workplace. She wishes people would wear masks in parliament. I try not to think about it. How else would I do my job?
On July 6th, he became ill. Terry had to carry her to bed after she fainted. He called an ambulance but the wait time was four hours, and when the paramedics arrived they said she was fine.
On the following day, he was confused. She tried to drink from a bottle of water without taking the lid off. They told Terry it would take five hours to get an ambulance. He tried to drive her to the hospital, but she wouldn't let him in the car.
By 9 July, he had stopped making sense. She looked through him as Terry asked her how she felt. She couldn't remember her birth date. Terry was told that it would take two hours to get an ambulance. When the paramedics arrived, they asked who Terry was. He remembers that she stared at him blankly.
The doctor from the Queen Elizabeth hospital called Terry after she was admitted. He asked if doctors should attempt to resuscitate her if she stopped breathing. He told Terry that he had Covid. Terry didn't think she would die for a while. She was double-vaccinated. She was not seriously ill. Doctors told Terry that they had found no evidence of the vaccine in her system.
I didn't think she would die. She had two vaccinations. She was not seriously ill.
Terry Brown is a man.
The Brown family was in a state of grief after "Freedom Day" came and went. By now, he was in intensive care. Terry was not allowed in due to the visitor restrictions. He asked them to let him visit. I said we had freedom day. The England football team is getting a lot of support. You are saying that I can not sit with my wife who is dying.
Kim spoke to her mother on the phone before she was put on a ventilator. It was frightening. Kim was tired when she was told by Michele that she felt awful. Kim thought she didn't want to hang up. She could hear her mother coughing. Kim says she just knew. I knew what was coming.
Doctors put him on a ventilator and he was not used. She passed away on July 29th. The family was allowed to visit at the end. Kim says it was horrible. I was kissing her hand. I knew she was gone. The family decided to turn off the machine. Kim says that she had been through enough. They took blood from her and she was bruised to bits. We let her go.
After he left the hospital, Terry wasn't able to see his friend. It was a closed coffin because of Covid. That killed me. He thought he would be able to see his wife again.
Stories of people who died of breakthrough infections are common in online anti-vaxx or anti-lockdown communities. A post on an anti-vaxx Facebook group reads, "Fully vaccine man dies of Covid-19." A post on a Facebook group with 6,500 members states that the fully vaccined Covid died. Will the mainstream media begin to understand the facts of Covid vaccines?
The death of Colin Powell, a vaccine-sceptic, was seen as proof that the vaccine is not effective. Colin Powell died from Covid and he was fully vaccined, according to one post. What is the point of the vaccine? Powell had a blood cancer that put him at greater risk of contracting the virus.
Full Fact has been examining online misinformation throughout the Pandemic and says that this narrative comes up again and again. It is difficult because we know the vaccine is not effective. We know that it makes a huge difference.
When 4.3 billion people worldwide have received a dose of the Covid vaccine, there will be breakthrough infections. Out of 51,281 deaths in England in the period 2 January to 2 July 2021, 640 people died of breakthrough infections. 84 of the deaths were in people who were immunocompromised. Experts have warned that there is uncertainty in the headline figure of the number of deaths caused by unvaccinated people.
Prof David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University says that the deaths of people who were vaccine-free have been used to back up claims that the vaccine doesn't work. It is inevitable that there will be deaths in people who have been given the vaccine, and they have formed the majority of Covid deaths for months. This is basic math. The example of seatbelts is used. Most car occupants who die in crashes are wearing seatbelts, because nearly everyone is wearing a seat belt and they don't provide full protection. This doesn't mean that seatbelts don't work, it just means they reduce risk.
Allen-Kinross says that government data is easy to misinterpret. It is easy for people to use this data to suggest that vaccines don't work at all. The Joe Rogan Experience is one of the most listened to podcasts in the US. Rogan hosted American journalist Alex Berenson, who stated that people who are vaccine-free are more likely to be exposed to the disease.
Full Fact then disproved the claims. Rogan has an estimated 11 million viewers for his show, so these efforts are likely to be seen by a small number of people. Allen-Kinross says bad information ruins lives.
Everything is the same at the Brown home. The back of the bedroom door has a dressing gown on it. There are bottles on the counter. Terry says that the whole house is owned by Michele. It is her home. As long as I am breathing, it will be her home. He is guilty. He asked why he let this happen. I did not protect her.
The couple are at their engagement party. The photo was taken by the Brown family.
Terry would have liked to have known that her vaccinations didn't work. Terry says that if he had been aware, they would have stayed in their bubble. We wouldn't let anyone in. We would have kept the same regime. That is what I am finding difficult. We had done everything we were supposed to do. The vaccines were to us like a boat.
There are probably other families in the same situation as Terry and Michele, who are unaware that the vaccines they rely on to keep them safe may not be effective. People don't know how their medicines affect them. They may not be taking all the steps they could to protect themselves.
The Department of Health and Social Care wrote to people on the shielding list to inform them that shielding had ended. The end of the shielding programme was announced due to the success of the Covid-19 vaccine programme and the emergence of proven treatments.
If you have any concerns about what this means for you, please raise it with your specialist at your next appointment.
There is an enormous post-pandemic backlog of non- urgent healthcare in the UK. It is not possible to get an appointment. There is no government support available for shielders. What do they do? Do they lose their job? What is the score?
Life in a post-unlocking UK is full of anxiety and fear for people who are aware that their vaccines may not work. Wong says that people want them to hide away. A lot of the people have been. They have been at home for the last two years. They could have a life if the rates of infections were lower. We protect everyone when we protect the most vulnerable.
Booster jabs have gone a long way to allay their concerns, as the Octave study findings were used to inform the government's decision to offer risk groups, including immunocompromised people, booster vaccines in September. McInnes's research team is working on the Octave Duo study to determine the effectiveness of booster vaccines in people who are immunocompromised. McInnes says that the data shows that a lot of people are benefiting from a third inoculation, and that it is a good idea to roll out the programme further. In response to Omicron, the government announced plans to give people with suppressed immune systems a fourth dose of the vaccine.
There is a family in Mallorca. The photo was taken by the Brown family.
Many people with diseases will have their children attend school. Until the Omicron variant was introduced in late November, the government didn't ask children to wear masks. The bubble system has been scrapped and it is only strongly advised in communal areas. Some parents have been threatened with prosecution for pulling their children out of school. In a letter to the education secretary, Clinically Vulnerable Families UK urged him to allow remote education for the children of clinically vulnerable households, rather than forcing them back to school. Wong says that there are measures that could be put into place that would make things safer for everyone. The air filters in school are to clean the air.
Some people who have been diagnosed with an immune deficiency have called for testing to be offered to those who request it, to see if the vaccine has worked. Wallace says that the tests are difficult to interpret because they don't have all the information about what an adequate level of antibodies is yet. Monoclonal antibody treatments may be effective in treating people with low immunity. Wallace encourages his patients to be cautious, wear masks in public, and avoid densely populated places that don't have good ventilation. They should only socialize with people they know are well.
These people are doomed to live a half-life for the foreseeable future. With the Omicron variant spreading throughout the UK, it seems likely that the public will be forced into an anxious wariness that has become the norm for people with immunocompromised people. The 145,000 people who died with Covid-19 in the UK are mourned by their families. They hope they won't be next.
