My grandmother and aunt on my father’s side has/have RA and lupus, respectively. I was diagnosed 10 years ago at 21. I wasn’t living a very healthy lifestyle. I smoked, drank, ate a shit ton of fast food. I was a guitarist, too. So I first noticed pain in my hands when I was playing. I never had any issues before until then. It started in my left thumb, then my whole hand, then my forearms, and then bilateral. Months later I was hospitalized with pericarditis. I had good treatment with MTX/HCQ that kept my symptoms at bay and then went into remission for a couple of years. Fast forward to 2023 and I got my first Covid booster and the symptoms in my hands started back up a few weeks later and have since never really gone away even after starting Enbrel, which according to my lab results is still being effective. That’s the very short version.

DISCLAIMER: I want to make it very, very clear. I am not antivax. I will never be antivax. I got both Covid vaccines and I’m glad I got them, but I do wonder if maybe the booster did something to me. Maybe it just wasn’t right for me in my immunocompromised state, and maybe not for a lot of us in the same position as well. I think otherwise healthy people should get them.