Post by Nadica (She/Her) on Aug 19, 2024 1:59:28 GMT
Vaccines Lowered Risk of Long COVID in US Veterans, but Not Completely - Published Aug 16, 2024
While the incidence of persistent and recurring symptoms of SARS-CoV-2, also known as post–COVID-19 condition or long COVID, decreased over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the risk remained even among those who were vaccinated, according to a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers examined the health records of more than 400 000 US veterans infected with SARS-CoV-2 between March 2020 and January 2022. They looked at the effect the 2 different variants—Delta and Omicron—and the COVID-19 vaccine had on the rates of long COVID events.
After the first year of the pandemic, when no vaccines were available, roughly 1 in 10 veterans had developed long COVID, researchers found. Those rates dropped slightly with each variant among the unvaccinated and even more so among those vaccinated. During the Omicron variant’s predominance, there were about 8 long COVID cases per 100 unvaccinated veterans compared with 3.5 per 100 vaccinated participants.
The researchers attributed about 70% of the decrease in long COVID cases to vaccines and 30% to the 2 different variants. Still, the findings suggest “the large number of infected persons during the [O]micron era, the large numbers of ongoing new infections and reinfections, and the poor uptake of vaccination may translate into a high number of persons” with long COVID, the researchers wrote.
Article Information
Published Online: August 16, 2024. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.15518
Study Link
www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2403211?logout=true
While the incidence of persistent and recurring symptoms of SARS-CoV-2, also known as post–COVID-19 condition or long COVID, decreased over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the risk remained even among those who were vaccinated, according to a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers examined the health records of more than 400 000 US veterans infected with SARS-CoV-2 between March 2020 and January 2022. They looked at the effect the 2 different variants—Delta and Omicron—and the COVID-19 vaccine had on the rates of long COVID events.
After the first year of the pandemic, when no vaccines were available, roughly 1 in 10 veterans had developed long COVID, researchers found. Those rates dropped slightly with each variant among the unvaccinated and even more so among those vaccinated. During the Omicron variant’s predominance, there were about 8 long COVID cases per 100 unvaccinated veterans compared with 3.5 per 100 vaccinated participants.
The researchers attributed about 70% of the decrease in long COVID cases to vaccines and 30% to the 2 different variants. Still, the findings suggest “the large number of infected persons during the [O]micron era, the large numbers of ongoing new infections and reinfections, and the poor uptake of vaccination may translate into a high number of persons” with long COVID, the researchers wrote.
Article Information
Published Online: August 16, 2024. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.15518
Study Link
www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2403211?logout=true