In many locations, the combination of COVID-19 vaccines and dropping case counts is stoking optimism and making many people feel more confident, even about indoor gatherings.
Unless you happen to be someone who is immunocompromised.
As restrictions like mask requirements loosen up, several primary immunodeficiency patients recently shared their stories with newspapers, including The Philadelphia Inquirer and North Carolina’s Charlotte Observer.
Chuck Lage was diagnosed with an immune deficiency in college. Not everyone can get back to normal, he said.
“We felt the rest of the world began to understand how we had always lived our lives,” Lage told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “But as this has changed again you tend to be forgotten.”
People with flawed immune systems have felt particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, a novel illness that proved fatal even for some who were otherwise healthy. It left those with immunodeficiencies isolated and stuck at home.
Wendy McClamorock’s son Lukas was born with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). Since the beginning of the pandemic, the North Carolina family has been on constant alert: no guests, lots of precautions and staying glued to resources like the Immune Deficiency Foundation for advice.
“We are very, very cautious,” McClamorock told the Charlotte Observer, though her son has been able to return to school and sports.
