Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are at high risk for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Government agencies or learned societies in many countries recommend prioritizing patients with CKD for COVID-19 vaccines. The immune response rate to the COVID-19 vaccines is lower in hemodialysis patients and kidney transplant recipients compared with that in healthy individuals, and increasing the number of vaccinations each member of these population may improve their immune response rate. There was no significant difference in the incidence of adverse reactions after vaccination between patients with CKD and healthy controls. Patients with stable CKD should be vaccinated against COVID-19 unless there were contraindications to vaccination. The mRNA vaccines, inactivated vaccines, and recombinant protein subunit vaccines are all safe for patients with CKD. Patients with CKD treated with rituximab or high-dose glucocorticoid need to weigh the benefits and risks before vaccination, and COVID-19 vaccines can be given when rituximab treatment ends for more than 6 months or after glucocorticoid reduction. Copyright © 2021 by the Chinese Medical Association.

Benifits outweigh the risks for patients with autoimmune disease (AID) in remission period to be vaccinated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines. The mRNA vaccines, inactivated vaccines, and recombinant protein subunit vaccines are safe for AID patients, whereas the safety of recombinant adenovirus vector-based vaccines is still uncertain. Some drugs for the treatment of AID may reduce the immune response of the body to the COVID-19 vaccines and affect the immune efficacy of the vaccine, which may be related to the timing of vaccination. Based on several published relevant guidelines and recommendations for the COVID-19 vaccines in AID patients, this article elaborates on vaccination problems to be paid attention to in patients with AID treated with different drugs. Copyright © 2021 by the Chinese Medical Association.

Vaccine development and vaccination are the most effective means to prevent and control coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). At present, there are 4 types of COVID-19 vaccines approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization and approved conditionally for marketing and emergency use by State Drug Administration of China, including inactivated vaccine, recombinant protein subunit vaccine, messenger RNA vaccine, and adenovirus vector-based vaccine. Pre-marketing clinical studies show that the vaccines above-mentioned can effectively stimulate the body's immune system to produce antibodies against COVID-19, the overall safety is good. Most of the adverse events after vaccination are mild or moderate. However, COVID-19 vaccination involves a large number and wide range of people, and its safety problems can not be ignored. The medical workers and researchers should be on high alert and conduct long-term monitoring to ensure vaccine safety. Copyright © 2021 by the Chinese Medical Association.

Patients with cancer are at high risk for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Institutions for disease control and prevention and cancer-related learned societies in many countries recommend prioritizing cancer patients for COVID-19 vaccines. All the COVID-19 vaccines currently approved for emergency use, including inactivated vaccines, mRNA vaccines, recombinant adenovirus vector-based vaccines, and recombinant protein subunit vaccines, can be applied in cancer patients. Cancer patients with stable disease can be vaccinated against COVID-19 at any time, while patients with advanced-stage cancer or undergoing anticancer therapy should decide on the timing of vaccination according to the specific situation such as treatment methods and cancer type, etc.. The benefits of COVID-19 vaccination in cancer patients may outweigh the risks, but the immune response rate may be lower in cancer patients, especially in patients with haematological malignancies, than in healthy individuals. Copyright © 2021 by the Chinese Medical Association.

Vaccines have made great contributions to the prevention of infectious diseases, but vaccine hesitancy is widespread in the world. The reasons for vaccine hesitancy are complex, but the main reasons are the lack of public awareness of vaccine-preventable diseases and the lack of confidence in vaccine effectiveness and safety. In the context of the continuous spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic, boosting public confidence and ensuring the orderly development of the vaccination work of COVID-19 vaccines and conventional vaccines are necessary to curb the resurgence of the COVID-19 epidemic and prevent the outbreak of various infectious diseases in China. Under the current situation, the main measures to deal with vaccine hesitancy are to play the role of health care institutions, improve public health literacy, normalize the public opinion orientation of the media platform, strengthen the supervision of vaccine clinical research and production, and do a good job in surveillance and compensation for adverse events following immunization. Copyright © 2021 by the Chinese Medical Association.

Solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients are a high-risk population for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines in this population is of great concern. At present, the published studies on COVID-19 vaccines for SOT recipients are mainly about mRNA vaccines and there are a few cases reports on recombinant adenovirus vector-based vaccines. These results show that the COVID-19 vaccines are safe for the SOT recipients, but the immune response rates are lower and the incidence of vaccine breakthrough infections is higher than that in the general population. Based on the results of the current studies, SOT recipients can start to be vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccines 1 to 3 months after organ transplantation. Prevention of COVID-19 after vaccination is still necessary to avoid vaccine breakthrough infections. Copyright © 2021 by the Chinese Medical Association.