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Can Vaccines Fight Long-term COVID-19 Symptoms?

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Some studies suggest that vaccination may help lower the likelihood of developing long-term symptoms after a Covid-19 infection, as well as make some individuals who are experiencing symptoms feel better.

Doctors believe that millions of individuals suffer from chronic Covid symptoms. Early research is already providing some indications as to whether shots may be beneficial.

Long Covid is one of Covid-19’s more surprising effects. An estimated 10% to 30% of individuals have symptoms that persist for months after their first infection, such as tiredness, cognitive issues, shortness of breath, or a racing pulse.

According to research published in the medical journal Lancet in September, fully vaccinated individuals who had a breakthrough infection were about 50% less likely to develop long-term Covid than unprotected patients with Covid-19. Long Covid was formed in 5% of the vaccinated group and 11.5% of the unprotected group.

“That’s a very strong and significant reduction,” said Claire Steves, senior author of the research and a geriatrician and clinical academic at King’s College in London. Vaccinated individuals are also much less likely to get sick in the first place, she adds.

Another recent research looked at whether vaccination might relieve individuals with long Covid symptoms. According to preliminary results from French research published in September, a group of long Covid patients reported an average of 13 symptoms four months after vaccine, compared to 15 symptoms before.

Four months following vaccination, the rate of recovery in the vaccinated group was 16.6 %, compared to 7.5% in a control group of long Covid patients who were not vaccinated. Patients who had been vaccinated also stated that the illness had less of an effect on their lives.

The results are preliminary and have not yet been peer-reviewed; they were published on the Lancet’s preprint website. The research examined 455 long Covid patients who were diagnosed after their symptoms appeared and 455 individuals who had long Covid but were not vaccinated. The majority of the study’s vaccinated individuals had got the Pfizer vaccine.

The study’s main author, Viet-Thi Tran, an associate professor of epidemiology at Université de Paris, speculates that vaccination may reduce a viral reservoir in the body that is producing long-term symptoms in certain individuals. However, he believes that there may be a placebo effect, in which people feel better after being vaccinated because they anticipate to.

According to Akiko Iwasaki, a Yale University professor of immunobiology who studies long Covid, the French research is the first large-scale investigation at the effect of vaccinations on long Covid patients. (She was not a part of the French research.)

As per her, the results support the idea that vaccines may wipe out any residual virus that is causing symptoms. If this were true, a patient’s improvement after vaccines would be permanent.

Dr. Iwasaki noted that the results may further validate the theory that prolonged Covid is caused by an autoimmune response. In such scenario, vaccines may temporarily reduce the production of harmful cytokines, which are proteins, giving patients with temporary respite.

Previously, prolonged Covid patient groups conducted surveys and reported that some individuals felt better or reported fewer symptoms after being vaccinated. In addition, a small preliminary research of 44 vaccinated patients in the United Kingdom discovered a modest reduction in symptoms when compared to 22 unvaccinated long Covid patients, as well as a decline in worsening symptoms and a rise in symptom resolution.

Dr. Iwasaki is doing her own research on the impact of vaccinations on long-term Covid patients, and she anticipates early findings in a few months.

David Putrino, head of rehabilitation innovation at Mount Sinai Health System in New York, has over 400 long Covid patients in rehab. Approximately half of those who have been vaccinated claim they feel better, while the other half say they feel the same or worse. He thinks the French study’s conclusion that “the vaccine is modulating symptoms” is “compelling,” but he thinks it’s essential to further understand why some individuals feel better and others don’t.

According to Daniel Griffin, head of the division of infectious diseases at ProHealth NY in New Hyde Park, N.Y., approximately 60% of the network’s long-term Covid users say feeling better after being vaccinated.

Carol and Edward Alexander, two patients he is treating for long Covid, had distinct reactions after being vaccinated. “For the first time in more than a year, I did not have a sore throat or a headache,” said Ms. Alexander, a 65-year-old editor and poet who lives in Manhattan with her husband. Her spouse, on the other hand, felt worse for a time before returning to how he felt before being vaccinated.

“What we’re seeing usually is improvement but not complete recovery,” Dr. Griffin said.

“So now I can smell again. Now I can go up that flight of stairs again. I can go back to work but I still need to lay down when I get home.”

Image Credit: EFE

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