According to a study published in , the Covid-19 vaccination only partially reduces the risk of long-term Covid symptoms and other comorbidities naturopathy– suggesting a different approach is needed to effectively tackle long Covid.
Study details and key results
For the study, researchers from VA St. Louis Health System analyzed data from January 1, 2021 to October 31, 2021 in the Veterans Affairs Department national health databases. In all, there were 33,940 people who had been vaccinated and developed breakthrough infection and 4,983,491 controls who did not test positive for Covid-19.
Compared to controls, patients with breakthrough infections had a more than 2-fold greater risk of pulmonary complications and coagulation/haematological disorders, and a 2-fold greater risk of fatigue at 30 days post-infection. In addition, the researchers found that these patients had an almost two-fold increased risk of death, as well as a higher risk of cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, kidney, mental, musculoskeletal, and neurological diseases compared to controls.
However, patients with breakthrough infections still had a lower risk of persistent Covid-19 symptoms and death than unvaccinated patients. Specifically, the researchers found that patients with breakthrough infections had a “consistently reduced risk” of hematologic/clotting disorders and lung disease.
Overall, vaccinated people in the study had a 15% reduced risk of long-term illness six months after their first Covid-19 diagnosis Washington Post reports.
Only people with a positive Covid-19 test were included, meaning there could be many people who had Covid-19 but were not tested. In addition, at least 90% of the VA population is male, which limits the generalizability of the study. The researchers also said it’s possible some confounding variables weren’t accounted for.
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According to the researchers, the results suggest that vaccination against infection with the coronavirus may offer “only partial protection” against ongoing symptoms and that relying on vaccination alone may not be enough to counter the effects of long-Covid reduce.
“That was disappointing,” said Ziyad Al-Aly, lead author of the study and head of the research and development service VA Saint Louis Health System. “I was hoping to see vaccines offer more protection, especially given that vaccines are our only line of defense these days.”
“Contagion of COVID-19, even among vaccinated people, seems almost inevitable these days,” Al-Aly added. “Now that we understand that COVID-19 can have lasting health consequences, even in those who are vaccinated, we need to focus on developing mitigation strategies that can be implemented over the longer term, as it does not appear that COVID-19 will be anytime soon.” time disappears.”
According to Al-Aly, current methods of protection – including vaccination, masking and social distancing – are “unsustainable” and a multi-layered approach is needed to protect people from infection and the subsequent risk of a long Covid.
“Our current approach is likely to leave behind large numbers of people with chronic and potentially disabling medical conditions for which there are no treatments,” he said. “We urgently need to develop and deploy additional layers of protection that could be sustainably implemented to reduce the risk of a long COVID.” (Choi, The hill, 25.5.; walker, MedPage today, 25.5.; Hey, Washington Post25.5.)
