Vaccination protects from long COVID


The COVID-19 pandemic had a dramatic effect on the US economy that was mitigated by the rapid development and deployment of COVID vaccines. I was a subject in the Moderna Phase III clinical trial of their RNA vaccine, and eventually have had six injections.

 

The well-established benefit of COVID vaccination is that it will keep you out of the ED and the morgue. But what about “long COVID,” the post-acute sequelae of COVID infection that can last for weeks, months or years? Well, my wife (also vaccinated) and I did contract COVID in November 2023, but aside from mild symptoms, we had no long-term consequences. But we’re anecdotes, not data. A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine brings the data:

 

“In a decomposition analysis, Al-Aly* and colleagues found that about 72% (95% CI 69.50-74.43) of the decrease in the cumulative risk of long COVID between the Omicron era and earlier eras could be attributed to vaccines and about 28% (95% CI 25.57-30.50) could be attributed to era-related effects, such as changes in virus pathogenicity. "These findings suggest that vaccine uptake will be key to maintaining the lower cumulative incidence of PASC [post-acute sequelae of COVID-19] relative to earlier phases of the pandemic," Al-Aly and colleagues wrote.”

So get the jab, peeps. It could not only save your life, but it will protect you from long COVID.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/longcovid/111151

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