COVID-19 Vaccine Clinical Guidance Summary for Patients with Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases (Part 1)
Allow me to discuss this week the guidelines formulated for the administration
of Covid vaccines to patients with Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases (RMD).
The guidelines were developed by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR)
COVID-19 Vaccine Clinical Guidance Task Force
The purpose of the guidelines is to provide information to rheumatology providers on the
use of the COVID-19 vaccine and the management of RMD patients around the time of vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 virus.
These guidelines were based upon a lack of reliable data and are not intended to
replace clinical decisions.
There are changes made to treatment plans, particularly in complex RMD patients,
therefore, must be individualized as part of a shared decision-making process.
This guidelines are provided as part of a living document which means it may change
from time to time depending on new facts or pieces of evidence.
The Task Force reviewed the clinical questions and associated proposed vaccine guidance
statements that were evaluated using a well-established method of consensus building.
Next week, we will be making a deeper dive on this topic by providing the methods,
the guidelines and conclusions.