Michelle Chason, a reiki master in Tallahassee, Florida, was diagnosed with COVID-19 on June 15, 2020. First, she developed dry mouth. Then came the nasty vertigo towers that led to turning rooms and eclipses.
Chason tested negative a month later, but she still does not feel right. The left side of her face tingles. She had chest pains, brain fog and short-term memory problems. Four months after her initial diagnosis, in October, Chason’s doctor told her she was suffering from long COVID.
As the vaccines begin to roll out, Chason plans to wait and see how other long guards react before she rolls up her sleeve. But on February 10, her doctor offered her the Pfizer vaccine and she got the chance.
Four days after the first dose, Chason said, the symptoms – dizziness, nausea, loss of appetite, cold fever – struck like a bolt of lightning. “I’ve been through every thing I’ve had to deal with since I had COVID,” Chason said.
A few days later, the vast majority of her long COVID symptoms – the brain fog, chest pain and tingling in the face – cleared up. “I’m better, I feel better. I’m not 100% from days before COVID, but I’m close, ‘Chason told HuffPost.
Around the world, there are many other people with long-distance symptoms – a condition now clinically defined as post-acute due to SARS-CoV-2, or PASC – reported similar experiences after receiving a vaccine.
A recent informal poll of Survivor Corps, a Facebook community of COVID-19 survivors, found that 36% of people with long-distance symptoms noticed improvements in their condition after vaccination. About 50% remained the same. Other unofficial surveys also estimated that about a third of patients with a long COVID feel better after receiving a vaccine.
At the same time many others with PASC reluctant to be vaccinated, regarding the shot can aggravate long-distance symptoms. They are concerned about the fact that they are being hit with side effects in addition to the devastatingly long COVID pain.
In general, the vaccines do not appear to aggravate long-term COVID symptoms. The Johnson & Johnson trials enrolled several people who had previously had COVID-19, and those people did not have a re-inflammatory reaction or especially a worse effect, according to F. Perry Wilson, a physician and researcher from Yale Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine.
But doctors know very little about PASC and how those with the condition can respond to a vaccine. Although the shot seems to improve long COVID symptoms in a small group of people, much of what we currently know is based on anecdotes.
How long-distance COVID works and how the vaccines can affect it
“We do not know who gets PASC, who avoids it, what exactly causes it, or how to even diagnose it effectively,” he said. William Li, a vascular biologist and medical director of the Angiogenesis Foundation. Without these answers, it is difficult to see how the vaccines affect long-term carriers, for better or for worse.
Li said researchers have followed up on some theories about what’s going on with PASC. The first is that the virus can damage the tissues.
“Maybe you were defeated by the virus and it’s going to linger for a while,” Wilson added. Some researchers believe that there may be ongoing inflammation, and a third theory is that people with PASC have nerve defects.
The final theory in progress is that long-term pieces of viruses can hide in their bodies. These viral fragments are unlikely to be detected during a PCR diagnostic test often used to diagnose COVID-19 – which makes sense because most PASC patients are negative, but the remnants of the virus can cause symptoms.
If this proves to be the case, a vaccine can activate the immune system enough to clear the pseudovirus and repair things. “We can not explain it yet, but it does suggest that strengthening the immune system can make a difference for some long-range guards,” Li said.
Wilson said it is also quite plausible that PASC symptoms simply get better over time, and since these patients have had symptoms for a while, improvements may happen around the time of vaccination.
There is still a lot to learn about long COVID and the vaccines
We need a lot more evidence to find out why some people never fully recover, and if and how the vaccines can help.
“More research on this phenomenon needs to be done, but the observation could be an important clue as to how to treat PASC,” Li said.
The National Institutes of Health is launched an investigation in February to study long COVID. And as more long-distance guards receive the vaccinations, doctors will have a better idea of whether the shots could be used as a possible treatment for PASC.
As for the moment, most doctors recommend that long-distance guards continue to get the shots. Evidence shows that the vaccines are safe in a wide range of conditions.
“Maybe there’s a chance it will even benefit them, but chances are it will just go well,” Wilson said.