Vaccines and Long Covid

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Anchor lead: Does getting a vaccine help people who have long term symptoms after Covid-19 infection? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Some people who’ve reported long term symptoms of Covid-19 infection and have gotten a vaccine against the virus report that their symptoms resolved. Brian Garibaldi, a critical care medicine expert at Johns Hopkins, considers why that might be so.

Garibaldi: It is possible that re-exposing someone to the antigens of the virus could somehow either reset the immune system or alter that immune response such that you no longer have prolonged inflammation. There’s also some component of people’s response to all the stressors of the pandemic, and this is not to say  that long Covid is attributable to people’s response to psychological stressors, but I think there could be some component of the symptoms that are related to that and getting a vaccine could have powerful implications for how people are coping with what’s happening around them and knowing that they’re now protected. I think the truth is we don’t know.   :30

Garibaldi notes that vaccination is recommended for those who’ve had Covid-19 so much more data is being gathered on the phenomenon. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.