Do you have a friend or family member who is immunocompromised due to organ transplant, cancer treatment or an autoimmune disease? Evusheld is a new medication from AstraZeneca designed specifically for people who are immunocompromised. Unlike Paxlovid or monoclonal antibodies such as Regeneron’s REGN-COV2, which are given after one has contracted COVID, Evusheld is administered before you get COVID and gives you all the antibodies your body didn’t create on its own in response to the vaccines.
It was the breakthrough my husband, Dave, was looking for. He had a liver transplant in 2019 and vaccines weren’t giving him much protection from COVID. In early March, he received Evusheld. Evusheld is what’s known as “a passive vaccine.” It combines two monoclonal antibodies (tixagevimab and cilgavimab) given in two shots that bind to different sites in the virus, preventing it from entering the cells and reproducing. Evusheld results in an 83% reduction in the rate of symptomatic coronavirus, with protection lasting for six months.
For Dave, it was simply a shot in each hip. No side effects. As a result, it has given him the confidence to get back out into the world. If you’d like to learn more about Evusheld, please contact me at [email protected]. This article from the New York Times is also very helpful.
