Vaccinated elderly people hit COVID-shaped piñata to get vaccinated
The older living community says that 99 percent of residents received the COVID-19 vaccine.
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Vaccination can offer some hope for people who are still enduring symptoms weeks or months after COVID-19 recovery.
Somewhere between about 10% and 30% of people who catch COVID-19 get long-lasting symptoms that are commonly referred to as long-COVID or long-distance COVID. Although most people with persistent problems had the disease severely, some had rare symptoms.
A new theory is emerging, though still tentative, that some of these long-suffering people may be able to help people get a COVID-19 vaccine.
In a survey of nearly 600 people who reported independent symptoms after COVID-19, 47% saw no difference after vaccination, 39% improved after receiving a vaccine, and 14% felt worse. The survey was conducted by Survivor Corps, a group of people with a long-term COVID-19.
Their most common persistent symptom was fatigue, which was reported by almost everyone and lasted 100 or more days. Other common long-term symptoms include shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, difficulty concentrating, inability to exercise or be active, diarrhea, headache and loss of smell and / or taste.
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It is biologically plausible that vaccination can help some of these symptoms, says Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of epidemiology and immunobiology at Yale, who developed the theory.
It could be that their bodies still contain particles or pieces of the virus that cause COVID-19. The vaccine can theoretically stimulate their immune system to seek out and clear away the remaining pieces so that they can no longer cause inflammation.
“We know that the vaccine elicits very robust antibodies that can bind to the virus and virus residues and clear it up,” she said.
Iwasaki said it would be great if it worked because it would make vaccination a “cure” for many people with persistent symptoms. “Get rid of the source and that’s it.”
But that’s probably not the whole answer.
It could also be that a COVID-19 infection in some people has driven their immune system too much. For them, a vaccine can only provide temporary relief, which reduces this overreaction while the vaccine is circulating in the body but does not address the underlying problem.
But even in this case, because he knew it would be important, Iwasaki said, because it would suggest that treatment to deny an immune response could be helpful.
“We really need to study their immune system,” she said.
Researchers plan to identify ‘first and only treatment for long COVID’
Iwasaki and several colleagues are arranging a large, prospective trial to see if the vaccination of some people’s symptoms clears up – short-lived or forever.
“I think this is especially important because it can not only be the first and only treatment for long COVID, but that it can help us understand the mechanism in the people for whom it helps,” said Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in California, which collaborates on the research.
The group has applied for federal funding to support the trial.
Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Center for Global Health Science and Safety at Georgetown University, said she thinks the Iwasaki hypothesis makes sense and is eager to show if it’s right.
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“It would be a great achievement if something we would all do anyway really solves the problem,” Rasmussen said of vaccination. “I would be the most pleasant surprised person in the world that it was so easy … It may not be that simple, but I really hope it is.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is considered America’s foremost expert on infectious diseases, said in a meeting of the congressional subcommittee on Wednesday that the National Institutes of Health considers these persistent symptoms to be an important issue of public health and more than Allocated $ 1 billion for the study of COVID.
He said a big experiment is essential to ensure that vaccination really gets the credit for these improvements, rather than just the expiration of time, which makes a difference for most people.
Fauci described two types of long-suffering patients: those who had a severe attack with the disease, which left them with permanent damage to their heart, lungs or liver, which is unlikely to resolve with vaccination; and those who initially did not suffer as much but struggled over the past few months to shake physical symptoms.
Brent Boschetti fought COVID-19 for months: ‘I just did not jump back’
Brent Boschetti (44) of Los Angeles fits into the second category.
Boschetti, a medical sales representative and workout enthusiast, caught COVID-19 on March 10, 2020 before exclusion or mask wear was recommended. By March 15, he lost the sense of smell and taste and by April, he had palpitations, had severe migraines, breathing problems, fatigue, muscle and joint pain.
“I was in bed quite a bit in May,” Boschetti said.
He eventually tested negative for the virus and was ready to return to his six-day-a-week workouts and daily runs. But his body was not.
“The energy was not there,” he said. “I just did not jump back.”
Every time he strove, he would reload the symptoms and end up in bed for a few days.
He managed to keep up with his work calling Zoom, but he spent much of the summer among specialists: a rheumatologist, cardiologist, immunologist, gastroenterologist. He started weekly acupuncture sessions and joined Survivor Corps for moral support.
By November, he was mostly feeling better. “People would say, ‘How do you feel, and I would say 90%.’ “I just did not feel completely myself,” said Boschetti.
He got an appointment for a vaccine in early February, although he was nervous that it could relieve his symptoms.
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But within a day, he felt like his old self again. His energy was back at 100. “It was like something that had just been cleared up, whatever was in me,” Boschetti said.
He felt good for three weeks and anxiously approached his second shot and wondered if it would undo all the benefits of the first shot. The first few days it looked like that. All the symptoms of his original infection recurred.
Then they all slowly faded.
“I have now noticed that it has decreased,” Boschetti said. “I have all my energy back. I ran about five kilometers yesterday and I worked as usual.”
Contact Karen Weintraub at [email protected].
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