Corona study: Vaccination reduces the risk of long-Covid, sometimes significantly

Created: 03/22/2022, 05:07

By: Bettina Menzel

The symptoms of "Long Covid" include tiredness, prolonged exhaustion and shortness of breath through to sleep disorders, mental problems and concentration problems (symbol image).

© Eva Blanco / Westend61 / Imago

A preprint study from Israel shows that the corona vaccination not only alleviates the course of the Covid disease, but also effectively protects against long-term consequences.

Safed (Israel)

No access to catering or leisure facilities without proof of vaccination.

This has long been the motto to contain the corona pandemic.

In many places - for example in Austria - there have recently been easing, the vaccination certificates were no longer used as an "entrance ticket".

But the usefulness of the vaccination remains valid, especially in view of the currently very high number of cases.

Vaccination not only reduces the risk of a severe course of the disease.

A study by the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine at Bar-Ilan University in Safed, Israel, now shows that the corona vaccination also effectively protects against the long-term consequences of a Sars-Cov-2 infection.

Corona virus: These are the symptoms of "Long Covid"

Anyone who has been through a corona infection knows some of the most common symptoms of this virus infection: fatigue and exhaustion as well as fever and cough are among them.

However, if people continue to suffer from long-lasting consequences for weeks or months after an infection, then we are talking about "Long Covid".

Those affected often have the fatigue syndrome, in which people are only partially resilient and chronically tired.

Shortness of breath can also be a long-term consequence of "Long Covid", as can sleep disorders, concentration or memory problems or muscle weakness.

Even long-term damage to the lungs, heart muscle inflammation, metabolic diseases or diabetes mellitus (diabetes) can be the result.

Some of those affected also developed thromboembolism, i.e. the blockage of a blood vessel.

According to a study by the University of Tübingen, 46 percent of those infected with corona treated on an outpatient basis still suffer from symptoms twelve weeks after the infection.

Study from Israel: Corona vaccination reduces the risk of “Long Covid” by 68 percent

Between March 2020 and November 2021, the research group led by Paul Kuodi and Yanay Gorelik from the Israeli university Bar-Ilan University in Safed examined people who tested positive for the corona virus for their long-term consequences.

The study participants filled out a questionnaire.

Of the total of 3388 subjects, 951 were infected and 2437 were uninfected.

Among the corona positives, 637 were vaccinated (67 percent).

The most commonly reported symptoms by study participants were fatigue (22 percent), headache (20 percent), fatigue (13 percent), and persistent muscle pain (10 percent).

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For vaccinated people: Death from lightning strikes more likely than from Corona

Again and again one hears that people fall ill with Corona despite three vaccinations.

But does that mean vaccination isn't efficient?

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After accounting for follow-up time and baseline symptoms, those twice vaccinated were up to 68 percent less likely to have any of these symptoms than unvaccinated individuals.

The researchers therefore came to the conclusion that a double vaccination against corona not only alleviates the acute course of the disease, but also significantly reduces the long-term consequences of a corona infection.

The study was published on a preprint server in January 2022.

This means that it has not yet been reviewed by peers.

The UK Covid Zoe study had already shown that the vaccination protects against the long-term consequences of a corona infection.

The English researchers measured the risk of people who had been vaccinated twice to contract Long Covid around half (47 percent) lower than for unvaccinated people.