Dear BSBMTCT member,
We hope all is well with you.
We will begin the March newsletter with exactly the same phrase as the previous two: “Undoubtedly, Covid-19 remains our number 1 priority at present.” However, we hope there is now some light at the end of this dark tunnel. Vaccination has been an important part of progress and, as we write, over 30 million have now received their vaccinations in the UK. Moreover, the Government has recently agreed to prioritise adults living with people with blood cancer for a vaccine in England https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-vaccine-advice-for-adults-living-with-adults-who-are-immunosuppressed
We still have important issues to address in our clinically extremely vulnerable patient population. BSBMTCT continues to be part of this great effort, alongside other great initiatives within our UK haemato-oncology and EBMT communities. Our BSBMTCT COVID-19 guidelines continue to be updated, now with regular updates of the vaccination guidelines developed by the Vaccination Sub-committee with the latest update published on March 15th on the website https://bsbmtct.org/bsbmtct-and-covid/. The national multi-speciality OCTAVE Study of immune response post-COVID, vaccination is rapidly becoming activated within the core and other IMPACT centres.
Otherwise, there remains much on the ‘to do’ list…
We hope that you all stay safe and well, mentally and physically. The BSBMTCT will do its best to maintain high levels of support and direction for our community, and help each other deliver our treatments to our vulnerable patient population as the pandemic moves into the endemic phase.
Our very best wishes,
John Snowden, Kim Orchard, Fiona Dignan, Deborah Richardson, Eduardo Olavarria, & Julia Lee