It’s also important to ask patients what they think about getting the vaccine, Dr. Curtis says. “As I have informally canvassed my own patients, as many as 20% say they may refuse the vaccine for varied reasons, including waiting for more information to emerge. That information would never materialize without the support of clinicians, researchers, patients and other stakeholders committed to generating the high-quality evidence needed.”
The four research initiatives presented on the Dec. 18 call cover the important questions that have been raised about rheumatology’s place in the vaccine picture, Dr. Yazdany says. “We want to have data that hopefully will offer reassurance to our patients. This is an unprecedented opportunity for our field to study vaccine response in those with autoimmunity and on immunosuppressive drugs, and likely will help us understand how best to approach vaccinations in our patients in the future.”
Larry Beresford is a medical journalist in Oakland, Calif.
References
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC COVID Data Tracker.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Different COVID-19 vaccines. 2020 Dec 28.
