E-Paper
Can vaccination reduce long effects of Covid-19? Here's what we know
A study, conducted by researchers in Israel, found that those fully vaccinated were much less likely to have post Covid conditions.
Vaccination can help reduce the long effects of Covid-19 infection, researchers have found based on data collected from those infected with coronavirus. An Israeli report has surfaced that shows that people vaccinated with both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were much less likely to report long Covid as compared to those unvaccinated.
The study, which is yet to be peer reviewed, showed that those vaccinated and infected with Covid-19 can fully recover from the disease showing no more symptoms than a person who has never got Covid.
Researchers of the Israeli study, published in the Nature journal, sampled more than 3,000 people whom they asked whether they were experiencing any persistent symptoms of the long Covid. The data was collected between July and November 2021 from people who had tested Covid positive between March 2020 and November 2021.
“Here is another reason to get vaccinated, if you needed one,” said co-author Michael Edelstein, an epidemiologist at Bar-Ilan University in Safed, Israel, as quoted by Nature journal.
What is long Covid?
The term ‘long Covid’ refers to a condition where people continue to experience certain symptoms of the viral infection – such as fatigue, shortness of breath, difficulty in concentration or 'brain fog' – weeks and months, and in some cases years, after being infected by Covid-19.
What did the researchers find?
According to the study, fully vaccinated participants who had also had Covid-19 were 54 per cent less likely to report headaches, 64 per cent less likely to report fatigue and 68 per cent less likely to report muscle pain than were their unvaccinated counterparts.
The result also echoed several other researches conducted around the world, including a UK-based study that found vaccination could halve the risk of long term symptoms of Covid-19.
However, this is not to say that fully vaccinated people do not develop the condition, especially since it is still unclear if the vaccine protects people from Omicron and its after effects.
