The International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society (MDS) released a statement regarding the vaccination against COVID-19 for people with Parkinson’s disease.
As announced in the international news, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has approved the first COVID-19 vaccines. They are currently being distributed in all European countries. The approval was given as the vaccines were tested for efficacy in comprehensive clinical trials and met the necessary standards and safety requirements.
The MDS considers this fact a great step forward to end the pandemic. They highly recommend that everybody, including people with Parkinson’s disease, gets vaccinated. The mode of action of the current vaccines has shown not to interfere with the neurodegenerative process in Parkinson’s disease nor current therapies. Moreover, clinical studies did not report any side effects specific to people with PD. As people are getting vaccinated, the situation will be closely monitored to further analyse the impact of the vaccines.
“The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented challenge for society, particularly elderly people and people with existing pre-conditions, in Luxembourg and beyond,” says Prof. Rejko Krüger, coordinator of the Luxembourg Parkinson’s Study. “With different vaccines now becoming available, we finally see light at the end of the tunnel. Thanks to vaccines we will be able to save many lives and to slowly envisage a return to normality.”. The government of Luxembourg has defined priority categories for the vaccination process.
In a first step, healthcare workers and residents of elderly homes will be able to get vaccinated. Secondly, people with pre-conditions that make them prone to more severe forms of COVID-19 will be given priority over the general population. An invitation will be sent via mail to book an appointment in one of the national COVID-19 vaccination centers (free of charge).