COVID-19 Vaccine Clinical Guidance Summary for Patients with Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases (Part 5)
Let us now focus on the assumptions and principles involved in the administration of Coronavirus disease (Covid) vaccines to rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMD).
The guidelines crafted by the task force of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) are not intended to replace the judgment of the clinician nor to override the values and opinions of the patients.
The task force needs to find additional information if the guideline is based on weak or indirect evidence. Thus, guidelines that have weak bases should be considered temporary or conditional.
The ACR is willing to updating the guidelines as new pieces of evidence emerge.
Rheumatologists lack important facts on how to best optimize the benefits of the vaccine.
RMD patients often show a myriad of variables with respect to their health condition, severity of the ailment, therapy, degree of multimorbidity, and relationship with the doctor.
As such, these factors need to be looked upon when providing individualized patient care.
No data exist about the safety and efficacy of messenger Ribonucleic Acid (mRNA) vaccines such as Pfizer and Moderna. However, there is no reason to believe that the harm will outweigh the benefits of getting the vaccine especially among RMD patients.
The truth is that the future of Covid vaccines remain in the air as far as efficacy, efficiency, and its ability to fight future virus variants are concerned.
Nevertheless, doctors need to act swiftly and decisively within their sound judgment considering the challenges of the pandemic.
The risk of delaying vaccination and thus failing to mitigate Covid risk should be considered against a possible weak response to the vaccine.
The issues should be resolved using additional scientific evidence as they become available.
The supply of the vaccine should also be considered as well as the provision for booster shots. The guidelines should be made simpler in order to improve the administration of the vaccine and maintain credibility.