Dear Colleagues,
As you know, COViMS Registry has been a great resource for the MS community over the last two years. We have been able to learn so much together and amazing to see so many participate in this endeavor. Thank you for your interest in and contributions to COViMS. This initiative would not have been possible without your support.
Through the COViMS Registry data, we have learned that increased disability and other factors such as older age, Black race, cardiovascular comorbidities, and recent treatment with corticosteroids are associated with worse COVID-19 outcomes among patients with MS. We also have contributed to other global data sharing efforts to further examine the role of disease modifying therapies play on COVID-19 outcomes. Overall, our data have provided the MS community with information to help inform and guide patient care during the pandemic.
As we move into a new phase of the pandemic with different variants, changing vaccines and vaccination strategies, and COVID-specific treatments, the most pressing questions have shifted away from “What are the medication and other risk factors for developing a more severe course of COVID-19 in patients with MS and related disease?” to new questions about vaccines, immunity, testing, and treatments. As COViMS was designed to address the initial question rather than these current questions, we believe that new studies are needed and that continued reporting to COViMS will not be as valuable as earlier in the pandemic. Additionally, providers (including most of us) have grown tired of reporting, and the reports we continue receive are becoming less generalizable with time.
At this juncture, we believe it is time to close-down reporting to the COViMS Registry database. COViMS served a valuable purpose at a time when our MS community needed fast answers to pressing questions. We look forward to future opportunities for collaboration.
With gratitude,
The COViMS Steering Committee
If you have any questions, please reach out to info@covims.org