Some people with long covid, in which individuals have long-lasting symptoms after a covid-19 infection, are reporting improvements in their health after being vaccinated against the coronavirus. The reports are based on anecdotes and a small, informal survey rather than a scientific study, but the trend might offer clues to what causes the persistent symptoms.
For most people, covid-19 is a mild or flu-like illness. However, some people are still ill many months after the infection.
Although it is normal for people to take a long time to recover after being seriously ill with a lung infection or after being in intensive care, some of those with long covid had only mild initial symptoms or didn鈥檛 even notice their infection.
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It is unknown what causes the ill health to persist for so long. Symptoms can include fatigue, muscle pains and difficulties concentrating, among many others.
Some people with long covid have expressed fears in patient support groups that getting the vaccine will worsen their symptoms, says Gez Medinger, a film-maker who began a YouTube channel about long covid after developing it himself. 鈥淧eople are very anxious about it,鈥� says Medinger.
But some individuals have reported online that they have improved after getting the vaccine. So Medinger carried out a survey last month using Facebook groups, which included 473 people with long covid who had received a first dose of vaccine.
Most felt 鈥渕oderately unwell鈥� for the first two days after having the jab, and after two weeks, about half were back to feeling just the same as they did before the vaccine. Some took a significant turn for the worse, with 4 per cent saying they had had a relapse of symptoms. Another 14 per cent said they felt slightly worse than before the vaccine. But 32 per cent said they either felt better or were completely recovered from the illness.
鈥淭aking the vaccine is more likely to completely resolve your symptoms than make you feel much worse,鈥� says Medinger.
Most of the respondents were from the UK or US. Sixty per cent had the Pfizer/BioNTech jab, 30 per cent had the Oxford/AstraZeneca one and the rest had the vaccine from Moderna.
There are several ideas about what causes long covid. One is that people鈥檚 immune systems are unable to get rid of the virus, so it persists in reservoirs, such as the gut, leading to low-level inflammation throughout the body.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e thinking of a virus reservoir that was never properly cleared, you could easily imagine how a vaccine could tip the balance back in your favour,鈥� says Danny Altmann at Imperial College London.
鈥淏y giving a vaccine, you could enhance the immune response in those who would otherwise continue to have virus lurking in sites within the body and this would lead to its elimination, thereby causing resolution of the symptoms,鈥� says Peter Openshaw, also at Imperial College London.
But Openshaw adds that it is too soon to conclude that the vaccine definitely helps people recover, and that a formal study is needed.
鈥淵ou can take theoretical arguments in any direction you want,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he only thing that will resolve it is a controlled clinical study. But it is encouraging if there aren鈥檛 many reports of exacerbation. That鈥檚 what we are afraid of.鈥�
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