COVID-19 Booster Vaccination in Persons With Multiple Sclerosis

The success of the U.S. vaccination program against SARS-Cov-2 is shown by a dramatic drop in infection rates, hospitalizations and deaths.However, it appears that many persons who take medications that chronically suppress the immune system do not produce neutralizing antibodies to COVID-19 proteins in response to vaccination. This group includes a significant number of persons with multiple sclerosis (PWMS), many of whom are on therapies that chronically suppress their immune function. It is unclear what advice clinicians should provide regarding COVID-19 precautions to patients who fail to develop detectable COVID-19 spike protein antibodies using standard commercially-available tests after a standard series of vaccination, or whether they should test for antibody responses to COVID-19 vaccines in the absence of guidelines. A key research question is whether, in the absence of stopping or reducing potentially immune-altering therapies, there is a way to increase the likelihood of a neutralizing antibody response to COVID-19 vaccination in PWMS who are taking immune suppressive medications.