Long-range guards report that the symptoms eased after they were shot

Sheri Paulson had trouble getting out of bed months after her Covid-19 diagnosis.

The 53-year-old North Dakota resident and her family fell ill with the disease after attending a wedding in August. Paulson, an endurance athlete who runs a farm outside Fargo, would later suffer from fatigue, brain fog and an increased heart rate that led doctors to advise her to stop exercising and attend heart disease.

Only about five days after getting her first Pfizer shot in February did she start to feel better.

“All of a sudden, I didn’t take any more naps after heart recovery,” said Paulson, who also suffers from multiple sclerosis. “And then I went for a walk with my dog. Then I was like, ‘hmm, I think I’m going to run a little bit, too.’

Some people who suffered from persistent and often debilitating symptoms months after their initial attack with the virus say that they find relief after being vaccinated, and they surprise their health experts. Survivor Corps, a group of patients for people with the so-called long Covid, recently surveyed nearly 900 members and found that 41% had a slight relief from full recovery shortly after receiving the shots.

The World Health Organization estimates that about 1 in 10 Covid patients experience persistent ill health 12 weeks after receiving the virus. Researchers at the University of Washington published data in February that found that a third of patients reported persistent symptoms, including fatigue, shortness of breath, and sleep disturbances, which lasted for as long as nine months.

Symptoms of long Covid, which researchers now call Post-Acute Sequelae or Covid-19, or PASC, can develop well after the initial infection, and according to serious health officials and health experts, the severity can range from mild to unfit.

One of the largest global studies published in early January found that many people suffering from persistent illnesses after infection were unable to work at full capacity again six months later. The study surveyed more than 3,700 people aged 18 to 80 in 56 countries.

Diana Berrent, who founded Survivor Corps just over a year ago, suffered from long Covid for months before most of her symptoms disappeared on their own last year. She said some members of the organization initially hesitated to be vaccinated. Members feared the reported side effects of the shots would cause them to worsen symptoms, she said.

“We really expected the worst from the vaccines,” she told CNBC, “You could have overthrown me with a feather in my cap when I found out some people were starting to get better because it was just so outside of what we were expecting.”

They are not alone. Facebook and Twitter are filled with stories of people testifying to their own surprise that their symptoms relieved or even disappeared after receiving a Covid vaccine.

The cause of the persistent symptoms is still not well understood by health experts.

Most studies have focused on people with a serious or fatal disease, not those who have recovered but still report persistent side effects, the so-called elongated ones. The virus is also relatively new – discovered a little over a year ago – so there is no long-term data on it.

The National Institutes of Health launched an initiative in February to study Covid at length and identify the causes and potential treatments. NIH director Dr Francis Collins said at the time that researchers were hoping to understand the underlying biological cause of the long-term symptoms.

Doctors also do not know why some patients with a long Covid say that they feel better after being vaccinated. According to experts, it may find that it can provide new insights into what is behind the persistent symptoms, as well as potential new treatments to combat it.

According to Yiko immunologist Akiko Iwasaki, one theory is that the vaccines help eliminate the so-called ‘virus reservoir’, where the virus can still linger in the body and cause chronic symptoms. The robust immune response caused by the vaccines can help clear up any remaining virus, which eliminates the symptoms, the scientist said.

“This is probably the simplest way” the vaccines can help people, she told CNBC in a telephone interview. “If that’s the case, people from Long Covid will be cured, and that will be great news.”

Iwasaki also suggested that Covid could cause an autoimmune disease where immune cells wrongly damage the body. If this is the case, the vaccines could provide a “temporary relief” of symptoms, and patients will eventually have to return for another dose, she said.

There is no long-term data on how people feel after the vaccination, she said. ‘But I suspect that if the second [hypothesis] is true, then it will not be a lasting relief. ‘

Darren Brown, a 37-year-old physiotherapist in the UK, said his symptoms returned a few weeks after receiving his first dose of Pfizer vaccine.

Brown suffered from fatigue, restless sleep and impaired coordination for several months. According to him, his long Covid symptoms felt completely relieved about three weeks after he got his first shot. But a few days before his second dose, he feels his symptoms start to return.

“I was starting to notice that I was getting tired again,” he said. ‘The level I thought I could push myself, the threshold, it feels like it’s lowered and I will have nothing in me after I just had to go to bed after a day at work. ‘

He has been feeling better since his second dose, but said he is worried his symptoms may return.

“I’m really careful it’s not long lasting,” he said. “But I’m also really overwhelmed with excitement that it’s being lifted for now.”

Paulson, the North Dakota farmer, said she still has symptoms, but the fatigue and brain fog have been gone since she got her second shot on March 18th. She added that she is grateful to be doing well, especially since many others have died from the disease. .

“There are always things that put life in perspective for you and put you back on your heels a little bit,” says Paulson, who also works for a biotechnology company in Massachusetts.

Although reports of relief from long-term Covid symptoms may be good news, they are still merely anecdotal, Drs. Paul Offit, a voting member of the FDA’s advisory committee on vaccines and related biological products, said.

There needs to be another formal trial to determine if the vaccines really help, he said.

Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Toronto, echoed Offit’s comments, saying he was skeptical but ‘open-minded’.

“This is an answer I can answer and I hope we have decent data that can confirm or refute it,” Bogoch said. “Otherwise it’s just a bunch of collective anecdotes”

Iwasaki told CNBC she plans to conduct a study in collaboration with Survivor Corps to analyze the blood samples from tall Covid patients before and after vaccination. She said he hopes they can explain the relief some patients experience after vaccination.

The study is still in the planning phase, she said, adding: “we are working very hard to get it going.”

“I’ve received numerous emails and DMs on Twitter about patients’ experiences … and I hear every day from people who feel better about getting the vaccine,” she said. “From where I stand, it looks encouraging.”

– CNBC’s Noah Higgins-Dunn contributed to this report.