By the University of Washington at St. Louis on May 26, 2022
New research reveals that even people vaccinated with mild COVID-19 infections can experience long, debilitating symptoms of COVID that affect the heart, brain, lungs, and other parts of the body.
While the risks are higher for the unvaccinated, a new study points to the need for more tools against the virus.
According to researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis. St. Louis and the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System Louis, people vaccinated with mild COVID-19 infections may experience debilitating and persistent symptoms that affect the heart, brain, lungs, and other parts. of the body. A new study of more than 13 million veterans, however, found that immunization against the virus that causes COVID-19 reduced the likelihood of mortality by 34% and the likelihood of developing long COVID-19 by 15% in compared to unvaccinated people infected with the virus.
Even people vaccinated with mild COVID-19 infections can experience persistent debilitating symptoms that affect the heart, brain, lungs, and other parts of the body, according to new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. St. Louis and the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System.
“Vaccinations remain critical in the fight against COVID-19.” – Ziyad Al-Aly, MD
The analysis of more than 13 million veterans also found that vaccination against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 reduced the risk of death by 34% and the risk of COVID-19 for a long time. 15% compared to unvaccinated patients infected with coronavirus. However, vaccines were shown to be more effective in preventing some of the most worrying manifestations of long-term COVID (lung and blood clotting disorders), which decreased by about 49% and 56%, respectively. , among the vaccinated.
The research was published on May 25, 2022 in the journal Nature Medicine.
“Vaccinations remain critical in the fight against VOCID-19,” said lead author Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, a clinical epidemiologist at the University of Washington. “Vaccinations reduce the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19. But vaccines appear to provide only modest protection against long-term COVID. People recovering from an innovative COVID-19 infection should continue to control your health and consult a healthcare provider if persistent symptoms make it difficult to perform daily activities. “
The researchers classified the patients as fully vaccinated if they had received two doses of the Modern or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson / Janssen vaccine. At the time the research was conducted, the database used for this study did not include information on whether patients were receiving reinforcements.
“Now that we understand that COVID-19 can have persistent health consequences even among vaccinated people, we need to move towards the development of long-term mitigation strategies that do not appear to be COVID-19 should be gone soon. “Said Al-Aly, who is also the head of research and development at VA St. Louis Health Care System. “We urgently need to develop and deploy additional layers of protection that can be implemented in a sustainable manner to reduce the risk of long-term COVID.”
These protective layers could include more convenient or potent nasal vaccines than current injections, or other types of vaccines or drugs designed to minimize the risks of long-term COVID.
“Getting COVID-19, even among vaccinated people, seems almost inevitable today,” Al-Aly said, noting that between 8 and 12 percent of people vaccinated with advanced infections can develop COVID in long term. “Our current approach is likely to leave a large number of people with chronic and potentially disabling conditions without treatment. This will not only affect people’s health, but their ability to work, life expectancy, economic productivity and “We need to have a sincere national conversation about the consequences of our current approach.”
Since the pandemic began, more than 524 million people worldwide have been infected with the virus; of these, more than 6 million have died, including more than 1 million in the United States alone.
“Let’s say SARS-CoV-2 has been here for 10 years,” Al-Aly continued. “People are tired and tired of masking and social distancing, and it’s just not sustainable to ask them to keep doing it. We need to create extra layers of protection that allow us to get back to normal life while living with the virus. are just part of the solution. “
For the study, researchers analyzed the unidentified medical records of more than 13 million veterans. The records are in a database maintained by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the nation’s largest integrated health care system. The researchers examined data from 113,474 unvaccinated COVID-19 patients and 33,940 vaccinated patients who had experienced innovative COVID-19 infections, all from January 1 to October 31, 2021.
Patients with COVID-19 were mostly older white men; however, the researchers also analyzed data that included more than 1.3 million women and adults of all ages and races.
The study does not include data on omicron variants of the virus, which began to spread rapidly in late 2021. However, Al-Aly said previous studies have suggested that the vaccine is effective against all current variants. .
Among the other conclusions of the study:
- In addition to complications involving the heart, brain, and lungs, other symptoms associated with long COVID include disorders involving the kidneys, blood clotting, mental health, metabolism, and the gastrointestinal and musculoskeletal systems.
- Long-term risks of COVID were 17% higher among immunocompromised people vaccinated with advanced infections compared to previously healthy and vaccinated people who experienced advanced infections.
- An analysis of 3,667 vaccinated patients who were hospitalized with innovative COVID-19 infections showed that they were 2.5 times more likely to die than those hospitalized with influenza. They also had a 27% higher risk of long-term COVID in the first 30 days after diagnosis compared to 14,337 people who were hospitalized with seasonal flu.
- The data sets also compared long-term health outcomes with a pre-pandemic control group of more than 5.75 million people (meaning they had never had COVID-19 because it had not yet existed). In general, people who had advanced COVID-19 faced significantly higher risks of death and illness such as heart and lung disease, neurological conditions, and kidney failure.
“The constellation of findings shows that the death and disease burden of people with innovative COVID-19 infections is not trivial,” Al-Aly said.
Reference: “Long COVID after breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection” by Ziyad Al-Aly, Benjamin Bowe and Yan Xie, May 25, 2022, Nature Medicine.DOI: 10.1038 / s41591-022-01840-0
This research was funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; the American Society of Nephrology; and KidneyCure.