This is very serious. We, as Rheumatoid Arthritis patients are taking drugs to suppress our immune systems. Personally, I am dealing with my very aggressive RA. I had been on Embrel for about 15 years without any issue until some very serious stress showed up in my life. My doctor thinks the stress is what triggered my current flare up which has been going on for about 2.5 years. I am gathering information as quickly as I can for obvious reasons. I got the Pfizer vaccine earlier this year. I had a severe reaction to the second dose of the vaccine. My reaction was not an immediate allergic reaction, which is expressed immediately after receiving the vaccine. Rather, my reaction started like the flu with a fever and being very tired and serious muscle ache. This showed up several hours after the vaccine. It then took several days for the flu like symptoms to subside.

I had been through several new biologic drug tests to find full remission. It appears that my RA, after about 14 months has once again figured out how to increase activity and basically require me to change to another biologic. In the meantime my Rheumatologist has already brought up the booster and is very concerned with where we are going to go from here.

I am absolutely taking the booster as soon as I can and I am mentally preparing myself for my body’s reaction, which, from what I have found will be more aggressive than the 2nd dose of the vaccine which caused the above reaction. Regardless, this is the path to safety, I believe, for those of us with autoimmune diseases in the era of Covid.

Good luck and stay safe!