The complex situation for immunocompromised people and COVID-19 vaccines
Studies suggest the available shots don't provide enough protection, leaving more than nine million Americans with compromised immune systems stuck in a waiting game.
When Margaret Collins, a 43-year-old geologist from Fort Worth, Texas, got her first dose of the Moderna vaccine January 6, she came home and cried.
“I was finally getting the shot,” she says. “I saw it as a step back to the life that I loved.”
A self-described extrovert, Collins became a hermit during the pandemic. She and her husband rarely stepped outside, and never without a mask. Her caution is warranted because she suffers from a generalized autoimmune disorder that includes hepatitis, psoriatic arthritis, vitiligo, and type 1 diabetes. Collins is also particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 because she received a donated pancreas and kidney in 2014 and takes three medications to suppress her immune system so her body doesn’t reject those
