I got the first two shots in January and early February. It was the Moderna vaccine, and I had no symptoms or reaction. In April or May, I saw my gastroenterologist — who prescribes a medication, Humira, that is hostile to the immune system — and he asked me if I wanted to be tested for the vaccine’s efficacy because he was doing an informal study. The results came back for two different tests not indicating any immunity. And, you know, he talked to me and said not to get upset about it and that there are other ways of measuring efficacy. These tests were roughly the same ones used in the trials. When they did the trials, they deliberately excluded people who were immunocompromised — they had to! They would have to set aside a placebo group, and they didn’t want to kill ’em. So that population is in the shadows. The people who should be really concerned are transplant people — mine is just a drug that attacks one aspect of immunity. They’re really potentially at risk…

I wanted to get the Pfizer vaccine, and I was in another state, not New York, last month. I didn’t lie. The people at the hospital system there are really good — well organized. They had me in the same computer system and asked me whether I’ve had shots, and I said, “Yes, but they didn’t take,” and they said, “You can’t have it.” I waited for another break from the Humira a month later and went to a pharmacy, which I knew would be sloppy. They didn’t ask. And I don’t know if the states all plug into the CDC, but I knew the pharmacy wasn’t going to be using any databases. They gave me the one-shot J&J. I haven’t been tested since — I suspect the doctor will test me in the fall.

I had a few aches and pains after the third shot, but it’s difficult at age 78 to determine the source of an ache. We moved the couch the other day — I might blame the couch.