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The letter from Al Nokhatha et al nicely complements our study whose primary purpose was to investigate how COVID-19 related closure of services influenced decisions of rheumatologists and health professionals in rheumatology regarding the management of patients with inflammatory rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMD).1 2 In contrast to the study by Al Nokhatha et al, we did not include data on vaccinations, which were at that time still far away.
The authors of this letter correctly point out that vaccination is fundamental to our patients in order to protect them from adverse outcomes of (certain) infections. However, many patients with inflammatory RMD are immunocompromised, and it is well known that in such a clientele, vaccination is challenging regarding both efficacy and safety. …
Footnotes
Handling editor Josef S Smolen
Contributors All authors drafted the manuscript together and approved its final version.
Funding European League against Rheumatism (EULAR), project number EPI025.
Competing interests CD received consulting/speaker’s fees from Abbvie, Eli Lilly, Janssen, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche and Sanofi, as well as grant support from Celgene, all unrelated to this manuscript. JWJB received honoraria from Lilly, Roche, Abbvie, Galapagos, SUN all unrelated to this manuscript. FB received consulting/speaker’s fees from Abbvie, Lilly, Horizon Therapeutics, Pfizer and Roche/Chugai, all unrelated to this manuscript.
Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.