The ME community has had a lot of questions about whether it is safe to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
ME/CFS experts from the Center for Complex Diseases, the Institute for Neuro-immune Medicine, the Bateman Horne Center and, in the UK, the ME Association have weighed in with their recommendations on this matter. Overall, clinicians are recommending that people with ME get a COVID-19 vaccine, but take precautions to offset adverse effects. The Bateman Horne Center recommends that people with ME/CFS wait a few months until the vaccines are broadly administered.
Center for Complex Diseases Recommendation: ME clinicians from the Center for Complex Diseases issued a letter discussing the safety of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer or Moderna and offer precautions with people with mast cell activation.
Institute for Neuro-immune Medicine Recommendation:
Dr. Nancy Klimas recommends taking supplements before and after the vaccine, and medicine to reduce mast cell activation.
Bateman Horne Center Recommendation: Dr. Bateman recommends people with ME/CFS wait a few months until the vaccines are broadly administered.
The ME Association (UK): Dr. Charles Shepherd concludes that “taking a risk of having an exacerbation of existing ME/CFS symptoms [from the vaccine] is a small price to pay for having a high degree of protection against a life threatening infection that we are all going to have to live with, just like flu, for the foreseeable future.” This applies equally to the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine that is likely to be most widely available in the UK.
1 thought on “ME Experts recommendations for getting A Covid-19 vaccine”
It’s the last day of January and I am patiently waiting to see if it’s OK for my wife who has mild ME/CFS to get a COVID vaccination. I received my first shot a week ago.
When are we going to know if ME/CFS patients who have taken the vaccine are fairing well?