Some Long Covid Patients Feel Much Better After Getting the Vaccine

Scientists are only beginning to study any potential effect of vaccines on long Covid symptoms. Anecdotes run the gamut: Besides those who report feeling better after the shots, many people say they have experienced no change and a small number say they feel worse.

Reports from doctors vary too. Dr. Daniel Griffin, an infectious disease physician at Columbia University, said about 40 percent of the long Covid patients he’s been treating cite symptom improvement after the vaccine. “They notice, ‘Hey, over the days, I’m feeling better. The fatigue isn’t so bad, maybe smell is coming back,’” Dr. Griffin said.

Other doctors say it is too early to know.

“Too few of our participants have been vaccinated so far to really be able to provide insight into this question,” said Dr. Michael Peluso, an infectious disease specialist working on a study of long-term Covid patients at the University of California, San Francisco. “I’ve heard anecdotes as well, but I’ve seen too little data so far.”

This month, a small study by British researchers that has not yet been peer reviewed found that eight months after people were hospitalized for Covid-19, those who were vaccinated experienced improvement in more long Covid symptoms than those who weren’t yet vaccinated. The 44 vaccinated patients in the study were older and had more underlying medical conditions, since people with those characteristics qualified for vaccines earlier.

One month after vaccination, those patients reported improvement in 23 percent of their long Covid symptoms like joint pain and breathing, while 5.6 percent of their symptoms had worsened. The 22 unvaccinated people questioned at that time said 15 percent of their symptoms were better, while 14 percent of their symptoms were worse. There was no difference in response between people who received the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines....