Last week, as my recent lab results loaded into the patient portal, my fears came true: “No significant level of detectable measles IgG antibody.”
My heart sank as I read the words. As someone who is immunosuppressed, I am unable to receive an MMR booster because live attenuated vaccines can potentially cause me severe illness. Suddenly, I felt even more vulnerable than I had only moments before.
I began taking immunosuppressants to treat multiple sclerosis in 2017, and my life changed instantly. I no longer had the luxury of relying on a fully functioning immune system to protect me from infectious disease. As a result, I adopted additional modes of protection beyond simply washing my hands.
Before my children have friends over, I check that their household is healthy. We use hand sanitizer when we’re out, I mask indoors in public spaces, and when we enter our home, we all wash our hands immediately. “Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Get those hands clean,” I joke.
But there’s nothing humorous about my situation. The medication that calms my multiple sclerosis kills an entire class of B-cells — the same cells that fight viruses like COVID and the flu. Being extra cautious isn’t a choice for me — it’s a necessity.
Becoming infected with a virus when you’re immunosuppressed not only means potentially becoming sicker than someone with an unaltered immune system (and possibly requiring hospitalization) — it also means my disease symptoms will likely flare. Walking, standing and activities of daily living become harder as my weakness escalates, weighing me down with unfathomable force.
Although my life has changed immensely since becoming immunosuppressed, vaccines and herd immunity have been my one consistent protection. I continue to get vaccinated against flu and COVID yearly despite a blunted response secondary to my immunosuppression because some protection is better than none. Vaccines give me peace of mind because they fill in where my immune system is lacking. And when sporadic cases of once eliminated diseases sprout up here and there, herd immunity helps to protect me.
But the current measles outbreak changed everything.
In Texas, at least 327 people have been infected since late January. Forty of the patients have been hospitalized, and the virus has already claimed the life of at least one child. As the outbreak spreads to other states, including my own, those of us who are immunosuppressed become victims amid the anti-vaccination movement.
Matters became worse when Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a long-time vaccine skeptic, took over the federal Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy has made claims about disease causes and interventions that lack strong evidence. He demanded data supporting vaccine safety, but when provided with this
