From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have had many questions. Now that vaccines against the virus are becoming available, people living with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis need even more information in order to make decisions. I asked Dr David Rubin, Chief of the Section of Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition and the Co-Director of the Digestive Diseases Center at The University of Chicago Medicine to answer some of these initial questions about the first COVID-19 vaccines (manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna). Topics discussed on this episode include:

• How vaccines work
• How mRNA works
• How IBD medications affect the immune system
• IBD medications and their potential effect on COVID-19 vaccination
• When we’ll have more information about COVID-19 vaccines and IBD
• Why side effects with vaccines are expected and what they mean