Can a COVID-19 Vaccine Limit Long COVID Symptoms?

Getting the COVID-19 vaccine might do more than just prevent severe illness. 

The shot could potentially reduce severe symptoms for those who might develop long COVID, according to experts from Mayo Clinic. 

Researchers, who believe this study is among the first to look into this topic, discovered that people who got the COVID vaccine before contracting the infectious virus were less likely to experience some of the more severe long COVID symptoms, such as stomach pain, shortness of breath, chest pain or dizziness. 

The researchers from the study, published Wednesday in the Journal of Investigative Medicine, examined self-reported data from 477 patients who sought treatment for long COVID at Mayo Clinic between May 2021 and July 2022. Among them, about half of the people had received a COVID vaccine prior to becoming infected with the virus. 

Based on the data, compared to the people who weren’t vaccinated, those who were previously vaccinated were two times less likely to experience abdominal pain, the lead author, Greg Vanichkachorn, M.D., M.P.H., and medical director of Mayo Clinic's COVID Activity Rehabilitation Program said in a video release about the study. 

The researchers also found that vaccinated individuals with long COVID were also less likely to report other symptoms such as loss of smell, chest pain, dizziness, numbness, shortness of breath, tremors and weakness. 

However, the researchers didn’t find any significant difference between the two groups when it came to some other common long COVID symptoms such as fatigue, muscle pain or irregular heartbeat.

The results from the study, “were quite surprising,” Dr. Vanichkachorn said in a statement. "This study shows that vaccines can be really important for long-haul COVID and can help reduce the severity of the condition."

Researchers also note they believe the vaccine could reduce the chances of getting long COVID altogether.

Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, the World Health Organization has reported that there have been more than 768 million COVID-19 cases globally. Among them, 20% of people under the age of 65 and 25% of people over 65 are likely at risk of developing long COVID, also known as persistent post-COVID syndrome. 

Despite having worked with long COVID patients for nearly three years, the researchers said that there are still a lot of unanswered questions regarding what causes the mysterious illness for some and what the long-term implications could be, especially with new COVID variants on the horizon. 

"We need more research to get an understanding of what is going on at the cellular level to cause these symptoms. If we can better understand that it will hopefully bring about new treatments for long-haul COVID,” Dr. Vanichkachorn added.

To learn more about the hard-to-explain and difficult-to-manage condition, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently launched a handful of long COVID-19 clinical trials. 

For now, the NIH clinical trials will test four different treatment options for long COVID. In the coming months, they’re expected to test at least seven more interventions. The NIH’s initiative on long COVID is part of the $1.15 billion effort that Congress approved in December 2020.