Initial vaccines will incorporate two technologies. The mRNA vaccines, including those produced by Pfizer and Moderna, instruct patients’ own bodies to manufacture a spike
protein that is found on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 that the body then recognizes as foreign and generates an immune response. The goal is for this immune response to
be durable. Critically, there is no live or attenuated virus incorporated in this technology, and symptoms associated with vaccination reflect upregulation of the immune
response (9). In contrast, other vaccines, such as that from AstraZeneca/Oxford, are more traditional, using
a modified adenovirus vector to deliver a COVID-19 spike protein to patients in order to trigger an immune
response and antibody development. While there is no reason to expect that vaccine safety for either of these
vaccine technologies will differ between dialysis patients and the general population, efficacy remains unknown,
and studies are urgently required in dialysis and immunocompromised populations.