Higher risk of short term COVID-19 vaccine adverse events in myositis patients with autoimmune comorbidities: results from the COVAD study.

Abstract

Vaccination against coronavirus disease 2 (COVID-19) is known to reduce adverse infection outcomes in the general population. However, most COVID-19 vaccination studies have excluded immunosuppressed individuals and those with systemic autoimmune diseases (SAIDs), including idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs), leading to a lack of safety data for this patient group. Studies of self-reported adverse events (AEs) following vaccination against COVID-19 have yielded conflicting results, with either higher or comparable adverse events in IIMs versus healthy controls (HCs) [1, 2]. This could potentially be explained by the effect of coexistent comorbidities on AEs in these patients, especially comorbid autoimmune conditions, an area that remains under-studied.