We are partnering with Johns Hopkins on a COVID-19 project vital to patients with NAFLD/NASH. As you know, we have been critical of the vaccine developers and the CDC for not engaging patients with liver disease. We want to know what to expect from this vaccine and the only way to find out is to do the testing.

We are pleased to announce a clinical trial for patients with diagnosed liver disease. It is very important that we as patients support this effort. It means having several blood tests but we are used to that and most importantly we can find out just how well the vaccine protects us. The link to sign up is below. I urge you to participate.

“COVID-19 Antibody Testing of Patients with Chronic Conditions

COVID-19 Antibody Testing of Patients with Chronic Conditions is being led by a team of researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine. The purpose of the study is to determine the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine as well as COVID-19 antibody levels in patients who receive the vaccine with the following chronic conditions: HIV, an autoimmune condition, cirrhosis, or on home dialysis. We aim to provide a better understanding of the COVID-19 vaccine safety and effectiveness in patients with these chronic conditions. 

If participants have received or will be receiving a vaccine and are interested in the study, the study involves completing an online survey and collecting a blood sample before vaccination (if you have not yet received the vaccine) and at time points after vaccination through your local LabCorp to determine COVID-19 antibody levels. There is no cost to participating and results will be shared with participants once they are received from LabCorp. 

Please visit  http://www.vaccineresponse.org/  to learn more and enroll. 

The principal investigator is Jacqueline Garonzik Wang, MD PhD, Associate Professor Of Surgery. The study has been approved by the Johns Hopkins Institutional Review Board (IRB00248540).”