Multiple Sclerosis and the COVID-19 Vaccine

UPDATED

I don’t think it would be much of a stretch to say that the last two years have been dominated by the coronavirus pandemic.  In a continually changing environment, we have recognised the need to help provide access to answers to the many questions that people living with multiple sclerosis (MS) have raised.

Examples of this include our two Facebook Live Q&A sessions in April 2020, one with neurologists from The Royal Melbourne Hospital (viewable here* ) and the other with Dr Sally Shaw (viewable here).

With the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine boosters well underway internationally, we now have much more data regarding both the safely and efficacy of these vaccines in people living with multiple sclerosis.  Having consistently received questions from our community, we have done our best to stay across the published literature and provide updates when appropriate.  Our latest update (January 2022), provided by our co-founder and chief science communicator, Brett Drummond, can be viewed here. 

While we can’t provide clinical advice on individual circumstances, our focus remains on providing access to high quality information and resources that will help facilitate decisions made in conjunction with healthcare professionals.  To start with, we wanted to provide the links to the position statements that multiple sclerosis organisations around the world are publishing on this topic.  We will continue to update this as more become available.  Currently, we have seen the following:

Multiple Sclerosis Society UK: click here.

National Multiple Sclerosis Society (US) – COVID-19 Vaccine Guidance:  click here.

National Multiple Sclerosis Society (US) – Timing MS Medications with COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines: click here.

Multiple Sclerosis International Federation (MSIF): click here.

MS Society of Canada – What You Need to Know About Coronavirus: click here.

The below links also provide the insights of neurologists and healthcare professionals.  However, this information is shared solely to help keep people living with multiple sclerosis up-to-date and informed.  As always, we strongly recommend that every member of our community consults their healthcare professionals before making any concrete decisions regarding the management of their MS.

Cedars Sinai (US) – Multiple Sclerosis and COVID-19: What We Know Now: click here.

University of Cardiff and Queen Mary University of London (UK): MS Treatment Impact on COVID Vaccine Effectiveness: click here.

As always, if you do have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us via e-mail or our social media channels. 

Please take care, stay safe and continue to look after each other during these ongoing difficult times.

Finally, please understand that the views and advice expressed in the links shared are those of the publishing organisations and do not represent advice from MStranslate.

*NOTE: The information contained within this video was accurate at the time of publishing, but advice may have changed since then.