IBD is a blanket term for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. The drugs used to treat those two conditions can leave patients immunosuppressed, which raised concerns about the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines for those patients. “Our goal is to, as new vaccines come out or new recommendations, to keep doing this type of research that will help patients inform whether they need a different vaccine schedule,” gastroenterologist Dr. Freddy Caldera said.