Does Covid-19 vaccination reduce the risk of Long Covid?

[Peter T]

Moved posts
Have found this article suggesting vaccination may not reduce the risk of Long Covid, but as always it is not clear how much reliance to place on a newspaper article, especially one with a potentially misleading headline, see

No evidence vaccine reduces risk of Long Covid, says expert
https://www.scotsman.com/health/no-evidence-vaccine-reduces-risk-of-long-covid-says-expert-3298837

 

[Wonko]

It seems unlikely there ever will be any evidence, at least in the UK, as it would appear they are not interested in collecting it, and even if they are they are not interested in releasing it.

Been plenty of time, and nothing, and now they appear to be attempting to close down 'discussion' about long covid.

 

[ahimsa]

Moved post
(Could not find this article on the forum - hope this is not a duplicate post!)

Not peer reviewed - hoping those who understand the issues will comment. Thanks!

Long-COVID symptoms less likely in vaccinated people, Israeli data say

People who’ve both been vaccinated and had COVID-19 are less likely to report fatigue and other health problems than unvaccinated people.

Data from people infected with SARS-CoV-2 early in the pandemic add to growing evidence suggesting that vaccination can help to reduce the risk of long COVID1.

Researchers in Israel report that people who have had both SARS-CoV-2 infection and doses of Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine were much less likely to report any of a range of common long-COVID symptoms than were people who were unvaccinated when infected. In fact, vaccinated people were no more likely to report symptoms than people who’d never caught SARS-CoV-2. The study has not yet been peer reviewed.

...

Although the results of both the UK and Israel studies show that vaccination reduces the risk of long COVID, she says, even fully vaccinated people are still at risk of developing the condition. And whether vaccination protects people from Omicron-induced long COVID is still unclear.

 

[Hutan]

That's another article in Nature that doesn't psychologise or downplay the problem of Long Covid.

But so far, the few studies that have looked into whether vaccines protect people from long COVID have had mixed results, says Akiko Iwasaki, a viral immunologist at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut....

Regardless, Iwasaki says these findings are encouraging. “Long COVID is a terrible and debilitating disease. Any measures we can take to prevent long COVID are key to limiting more suffering in the future,” she says. “One more reason to get vaccinated.”

There was a November 2021 Nature article
Do vaccines protect against long COVID? What the data say
that noted the difficulty in studying the question because so many of the Covid infections, especially post-vaccination, are asymptomatic or only mild symptomatic.

Determining the risk of long COVID from breakthrough infections is challenging. Many people with mild or asymptomatic infections might not be tested for COVID-19, says immunologist Petter Brodin at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. “Doing any kind of assessment of how many people develop long-term symptoms after they are vaccinated is going to be incredibly difficult,” he says. “We will miss so many people.”

The rapid reduction in the utility of vaccinations over time, perhaps especially for Omicron, will be another problem in trying to sort out whether vaccinations help.

 

[alex3619]

The rapid reduction in the utility of vaccinations over time, perhaps especially for Omicron, will be another problem in trying to sort out whether vaccinations help.

The new variants seem to have different tissue affinities too, with Omicron less likely to damage lung tissues for example. That might turn out to be important. I expect more studies, more data, more confounds to arise on this question this year.

 

[ahimsa]

Saw this article in The Guardian:

Coronavirus vaccines may reduce risk of long Covid, ONS study finds

Observational study finds double-jabbed people 41% less likely to report Covid symptoms 12 weeks after a positive test

Vaccination could reduce the risk of long Covid, research by the Office for National Statistics suggests.

The study, of more than 6,000 adults, found those who were double-vaccinated had a 41% lower likelihood of self-reporting Covid symptoms 12 weeks after first testing positive.

Overall, 9.5% of the double-vaccinated group reported experiencing long Covid, defined as symptoms lasting more than four weeks, compared with 14.6% of a socio-demographically matched group who were unvaccinated.

 

[Wonko]

But surely that flies in the face of all the research and expert opinion that says that both covid and long covid are entirely caused by people knowing about them?

Coz, presumably, people who have been double-vaccinated must have heard of covid and must therefore, according to the research, and experts, be much more likely to report long covid symptoms?

Than those who haven't heard of covid, or long covid, who do not report long covid symptoms, according to the research and experts.

I just wish these people/research/experts would keep telling me what to believe.

 

[rvallee]

But surely that flies in the face of all the research and expert opinion that says that both covid and long covid are entirely caused by people knowing about them?

Coz, presumably, people who have been double-vaccinated must have heard of covid and must therefore, according to the research, and experts, be much more likely to report long covid symptoms?

Than those who haven't heard of covid, or long covid, who do not report long covid symptoms, according to the research and experts.

I just wish these people/research/experts would keep telling me what to believe.

Oh, the people spewing nonsense about "cultural illness" have no problem holding incompatible thoughts. LC deniers will happily talk about both without giving any thought about what either means. It's pretty incredible how common doublethink is, and medicine is frankly highly susceptible to it.

That's basically how we got stuff like the intersection between mind and body, or whatever. You can bet the line would be something about how vaccination reduces people's fears. Or whatever, doublethink doesn't care what's true and isn't.

If anything, the pandemic has exposed just how common it is. It's literally front-and-center and guiding decisions. It's, uh, not ideal.

 

[TiredSam]

But surely that flies in the face of all the research and expert opinion that says that both covid and long covid are entirely caused by people knowing about them?

Coz, presumably, people who have been double-vaccinated must have heard of covid and must therefore, according to the research, and experts, be much more likely to report long covid symptoms?

Than those who haven't heard of covid, or long covid, who do not report long covid symptoms, according to the research and experts.

I just wish these people/research/experts would keep telling me what to believe.

Obviously we need to think about the names we give to variants, as it is quite clear that some names are more likely to induce cultural angst than others. Names with only 2 syllables (alpha, beta, gamma, delta) tend to cause an increased risk of perceived long-covid than those with three syllables (omicron). Names with 2 syllables separated by a hyphen have been particularly problematic (kung-flu). What we really need is funding for a comprehensive psycholinguistic analysis.

 

[Midnattsol]

A new discussion thread has been created for discussion of worsening following vaccination: Experience of worsening following vaccination - discussion thread