Steroid Injection and COVID-19 Vaccine

Last week, Dr. Keenan shared how your COVID-19 vaccination could throw off your mammogram results. This week, I’d like to relate some emerging news about the use steroids and how they may affect vaccines.

At this time, a few small studies that suggest that using steroids in the days before or after vaccination could reduce the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine. This is especially important for those who receive steroid injections to manage osteoarthritis pain, for instance.

While conclusive evidence is not yet available to recommend for or against using steroids around COVID-19 vaccinations, the providers at SVMC Orthopedics are recommending that our patients hold steroid injections in the 2 weeks before and 1 week after administration of COVID-19 vaccine.

Dr. Schneiderbauer is the medical director of Orthopedics at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington.