How vaccines give you good protection against long Covid dose-by-dose – inews

Getting vaccinated could significantly reduce the risk of developing long Covid, with more jabs offering greater protection, according to a study.

Researchers found that people who had three or more doses of the vaccine were 73 per cent less likely to develop long Covid after an infection than those who were unvaccinated.

They also found that people were 21 per cent less likely to develop the condition after the first dose and 59 per cent less likely after the second, according to the study published in the BMJ.

The results from this study highlight the importance of getting vaccinated against Covid-19 not only to reduce the risk of severe infection but also the risk of long Covid, Maria Bygdell, of the University of Gothenburg, told i.

Estimates of how many people in the UKhave long Covid, defined as having symptoms for three months or longer, vary from around one to 2 million.

The most common lasting symptoms are fatigue, difficulty thinking or concentrating and joint pains.

But other persistent symptoms include a loss or change of sense of smell or taste, shortness of breath, severe fatigue, chest tightness or pain, and poor memory, according to the latest findings from Imperial College Londons REACT study.

It was already well known that vaccines reduce the risk of severe illness after a Covid infection as well as, to a lesser extent, the risk of becoming infected in the first place.

Meanwhile, previous research has suggested that jabs could also reduce the risk of long Covid which can develop from mild as well as serious cases of the virus, although less commonly so.

But these earlier studies have tended to be small, based on self-reported symptoms, which are typically less reliable, and conducted in trial conditions, researchers say.

They have also typically lumped together the different numbers of doses for each person, despite individual variations in the number of jabs.

As such, the findings of previous research have been highly variable.

By contrast, this is a large study of 589,722 adults based on real-world data and clinical diagnoses, and it splits out the benefit of each successive dose.

This makes it the most comprehensive study into the benefits of vaccines against long Covid which should go a long way to settling the matter, researchers say.

Dr Bygdell points out that the study was observational, meaning that it identified an association between vaccines and reduced long Covid risk, rather than establishing cause and effect.

As such, there may have been some other reason for the link. But the researchers are confident their findings are solid and strongly back the case for vaccinations to reduce the risk of long Covid.

A range of factors including age, sex, existing conditions, number of healthcare contacts during 2019, education level, employment status, and dominant virus variant at time of infection were also accounted for in the analysis, they say.

In a BMJ editorial about the significance of the research, Manoj Sivan, of Leeds University, said These are impressive findings It is reassuring that Covid-19 vaccines have a clear and clinically important protective effect against post-Covid-19 condition.

Dr Sivan also has a theory about the protection offered against long Covid.

He said: Vaccines activate the immune systems antibody and T-cell responses, enabling the neutralisation or destruction of [the virus], reducing the severity of infection and risk of hospital admission and death. These mechanisms could also explain the protective effect of vaccines against post-Covid-19 condition.

On the differences between this study and previous research in this area, Dr Bygdell added: A few studies have previously evaluated the potential protective effect of vaccines on long Covid. However, they have been relatively small, seldom population-based and [have] often not evaluated the effect for a different number of vaccine doses.

We have conducted a large study based on all adult residents in the two largest regions in Sweden. We have also used a clinical diagnosis of post-Covid-19 condition compared to other studies who often used self-reported symptoms after Covid-19.

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How vaccines give you good protection against long Covid dose-by-dose - inews