Some people with ‘Long COVID’ say their symptoms improved after vaccine

Several people suffering from long-term effects of COVID-19 have said their symptoms were alleviated after being vaccinated against the virus, The Washington Post reports.

So-called “Long Covid,” a phenomenon in which those who have ostensibly recovered from the virus continue to experience sometimes-debilitating symptoms for months after contagion, is still relatively mysterious, with no scientific consensus on the condition among clinicians and researchers.

Symptoms have included headaches, shortness of breath, fatigue, brain fog, muscle pain, insomnia and more.

Several people interviewed by the post say they saw remarkable improvement shortly after getting the shot.

Steven Deeks, an infectious disease physician at the University of California at San Francisco, tells the Post it’s possible the vaccine takes care of some viral holdouts in the body.

It has also been hypothesized that an unbalanced immune response to the virus is causing the long-term symptoms, and the vaccine is somehow helping “reset” the system.

The paper notes that only some people have reported an improvement in a small study done so far, and that there is no solid information on the issue at this time.