Will you be able to get a COVID vaccine?
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I'm guessing they want the Tdap vaccine, which is for tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (whooping cough). Tetanus is not contagious but the other two diseases are. Quest does titers for all three, but this is the description that came with the pertussis results.
This assay cannot be used to assess protective immunity to
pertussis because the specific antibodies and antibody levels
that correlate with protection have not been well defined.
The primary intent of the assay is to aid in the diagnosis
of infection following natural exposure to Bordetella
pertussis. The indicated PT IgG reference ranges reflect the
90th percentile of antibody levels in sera from healthy
children and blood donors; thus, levels above the reference
range suggest recent infection or vaccination within the
last few months.The bottom line is that you get some idea if you're protected against tetanus and diphtheria from the Quest test, but not pertussis.
There is also this from the American Academy of Family Physicians, which confirms what Quest says and also says that even if you get a booster every ten years, you probably lose immunity to pertussis way before then and they note that re-vaccination isn't an effective public health strategy.
Unlike with other vaccines, there is not a standardized antibody titer to confirm protection against pertussis.27 Although pertussis vaccines were initially whole cell, the high reactogenicity of the vaccine caused frequent adverse effects (e.g., local reaction, seizure, pain, fever sometimes leading to febrile seizure), resulting in the adoption of acellular vaccines in the 1990s.
Immunity typically wanes two to four years after administration of the acellular pertussis vaccine, although this can occur as early as one year postvaccination.28 Individuals with natural infection also experience waning immunity, including children with a history of pertussis.4,29 Because of this rapid decrease in immunity, it is not considered an effective public health strategy to continue recurrent tetanus toxoid, reduced diphtheria toxoid, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) boosters.4
https://www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/2021/0800/p186.html
Confused yet?
In any event, it won't hurt to ask if they'll accept the titer. Maybe they won't read the fine print about pertussis....
