Vaccines are promising to reduce long COVID: Shot

Studies show that vaccinated people tend to have a lower percentage of long-term COVID-19 after catching the virus than unvaccinated people, even with a single dose.

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Studies show that vaccinated people tend to have a lower percentage of long-term COVID-19 after catching the virus than unvaccinated people, even with a single dose.

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

The potential for even mild cases of COVID-19 to turn into a long-term debilitating condition is one of the greatest fears of Americans trying to overcome a pandemic. New data shows BA.2 subvariants are well established in the United States

Unfortunately, the only surefire way to avoid long COVIDs is to not catch the virus in the first place.

However, there is a growing body of research now that gives at least some relief to those who become infected. Full vaccination appears to significantly reduce the risk of developing persistent symptoms that characterize long COVIDs later.

Many of the findings are still preliminary, but a few studies that have emerged in the last six months tell a relatively consistent story.

“It may not be possible to eradicate the symptoms of long COVID, but the protective effect seems to be very strong,” says the epidemiology professor. Michael GemstoneOf Bar-Ilan University, Israel, who has been studying COVID for a long time.

Adelstein’s research Recent analysis Evidence of a long COVID and vaccination made by the UK Health Security Agency. According to the review, vaccinated people tend to have a lower incidence of long-term COVID after infection than unvaccinated people.

I have Running list Of theory about why people get long COVID. Persistent tissue damage from infection, blood vessel damage and microclot development, viral retention in parts of the body, or autoimmune status are some of the ideas being explored in the study.

But even if you don’t have a clear understanding of what exactly drives long COVID, he says, there’s good reason to believe that vaccines can help prevent this condition. Dr. Stephen DikesProfessor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco.

There is overwhelming evidence that vaccinated people have less virus in their bodies at the time of infection. “Therefore, it makes a lot of sense that the amount of virus-related complications decreases over time,” he says.

Looks good … but how good is it?

One of the ongoing challenges in long-term COVID research is simply defining the condition. Each study takes a slightly different approach to what symptoms are counted and how long they need to last after the initial infection.

This discrepancy makes it difficult to put together a single estimate of the amount that the vaccine will limit long COVID.

However, in general, Dikes says that vaccinated people appear to have a 50% lower average risk of developing longer COVIDs than unvaccinated people. This is within the scope of multiple studies in the United Kingdom, Israel and the United States.

Ideally, long COVIDs should not be measured months after the initial infection, he says. “Many people are still slowly getting better, so you’ll have to wait at least four months to determine if these symptoms persist.”

The Israeli studyPerformed by Edelstein and his colleagues, we tracked thousands of unvaccinated, partially vaccinated, and fully vaccinated people. Those who tested positive were asked to self-report their symptoms within 4-8 months of the initial infection.

Participants who received the vaccine a few times were about 50% to 80% less likely to report 7 of the 10 most common symptoms, including shortness of breath, headache, weakness, and muscle aches. ..

Edelstein states that these results are not necessarily surprising as they are compatible with other recent studies. “Vaccination gives us the peace of mind that the chances of a long COVID are greatly reduced.”

In fact, some researchers have looked at electronic records from US healthcare providers and found similar results. Large-scale research We conclude that patients who have been vaccinated at least once are 7-10 times less likely to report two or more long COVID symptoms compared to unvaccinated people 12-20 weeks after infection. I did.

However, the evidence is not completely definitive. Some studies have not found such a large decrease. for example, Major research An analysis of electronic health records of US veterans analyzed medical problems affecting various organ systems 6 months after coronavirus infection.

Full vaccination did not appear to make a very meaningful difference to many of the post-infection complications, except for two specific areas, the study authors say. Dr. Zyard AlaryVeteran St. Louis Healthcare System Director of Clinical Epidemiology.

“”People have less symptoms left in their lungs and less blood clots, “he says.

The study also found that people hospitalized with COVID-19 were at increased risk of long-term COVID symptoms compared to people with mild illness, but vaccines continue to make a significant difference in reducing the risk of long-term COVID. I did.

“The vaccine is supposed to protect you from hospitalization,” says Al-Aly. “But even if they fail, get a breakthrough COVID, and are currently hospitalized, they are better than those who have been infected with COVID and have never been vaccinated.”

Conflicting results in the study may be due, in part, to how long COVIDs were measured, how symptoms were reported, and how they were performed, such as differences in the patient population studied.

Good shield — but not perfect

Despite promising evidence, long COVID researchers warn that vaccines can only do so much, and that some people, even if vaccinated, always suffer from symptoms.

actual, Recent research British researchers have found that vaccines significantly reduce the risk of long-term COVID compared to unvaccinated individuals, but nearly 10% of fully vaccinated participants have 3 After a month, he showed long symptoms of COVID.

David Putrino At Mount Sinai Health System in New York City, we will take care of long COVID patients who fit this profile perfectly.

“We do not sincerely believe that we can distinguish between breakthrough cases of long COVID and cases of long COVID before vaccination,” said Putrino, Director of Rehabilitation Innovation at Mount Sinai. “The symptoms are very consistent.”

And now there is another open question that researchers are facing: how well can a vaccine withstand a long COVID after an Omicron infection?

With the advent of Omicron late last year, there is still no data on the number of people with long COVIDs from new variants, but Dikes says there are already people who seem to be heading in that direction. “Undoubtedly, it’s clear that some people were sick today after being infected with COVID a few months ago. I hope not many,” he says.

Based on what is known about the subspecies, no one really knows if the person who got Omicron tends to have a longer COVID.

On the other hand, Omicron is good at evading the immune defenses of vaccines, so “the COVID can be long,” Dikes says.

Alternatively, the variants may cause more localized infections and do not spread much throughout the body, thus actually reducing the number of long COVID instances.

Dikes leans towards more optimistic scenarios. “That’s my prediction, but it’s just a prediction.”