Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Plenary Session From the GRAPPA 2020 Annual Meeting.

Mease, Philip J; Calabrese, Leonard H; Callis Duffin, Kristina; Haberman, Rebecca H; Firmino, Rodrigo; Scher, Jose U; Schick, Lori; Winthrop, Kevin; Merola, Joseph F; Duffin, Kristina Callis

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19; caused by SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has affected the healthcare system on a global scale, and we utilized the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) 2020 annual meeting to examine how COVID-19 might affect patients with psoriatic disease (PsD) and the clinicians who care for them. Pressing issues and concerns identified included whether having psoriasis increased the risk of acquiring COVID-19, vaccine safety, and the acceptability of telehealth. The general message from rheumatologists, dermatologists, infectious disease specialists, and patient research partners was that data did not suggest that having PsD or its treatment significantly increased risk of infection or more severe disease course, and that the telehealth experience was a success overall.