Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Immunol. Aug 24, 2022; 12(2): 9-14
Published online Aug 24, 2022. doi: 10.5411/wji.v12.i2.9
Vaccines and autoimmunity during the COVID-19 pandemic
Tsvetelina Velikova
Tsvetelina Velikova, Department of Clinical Immunology, University Hospital Lozenetz, Sofia 1407, Bulgaria
Tsvetelina Velikova, Medical Faculty, Sofia University, Sofia 1407, Bulgaria
Author contributions: Velikova T wrote the draft and revised the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Tsvetelina Velikova, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Clinical Immunology, University Hospital Lozenetz, Kozyak 1 Street, Sofia 1407, Bulgaria. tsvelikova@medfac.mu-sofia.bg
Received: July 2, 2021
Peer-review started: July 2, 2021
First decision: July 30, 2021
Revised: August 13, 2021
Accepted: July 24, 2022
Article in press: July 24, 2022
Published online: August 24, 2022
Processing time: 416 Days and 6.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines have created concerns about their efficacy and safety, notably in autoimmune patients. Which vaccine adverse events are related to the underlying autoimmunity is unclear. Additional data is needed to evaluate the immunological impact of COVID-19 vaccines in terms of effectiveness and immune-driven adverse effects that might provoke a disease flare in individuals with a history of autoimmune-related symptoms. However, the risk of autoimmune disease flare after vaccination was considered low, while the immune responses after vaccination showed great immunogenicity for these patients. In addition, vaccination will considerably decrease related morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 in autoimmune patients.