UK health agency says long-term Covid is less common in vaccination

A man walks past a poster about the Covid-19 pandemic in London

LONDON (Reuters) – A new review of 15 studies by the UK Health Safety Agency (UKHSA) published on Tuesday concludes that COVID-19 is less likely to have a long-term impact on vaccinated people than unvaccinated people.

The agency said that people who received two doses of the vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca or Moderna, or one dose of the vaccination from J&J, were half as likely to develop permanent symptoms of Covid-19 than those who were not vaccinated. .

“These studies add to the potential benefits of receiving a full course of the Covid-19 vaccine,” said Mary Ramsay, UKHSA’s head of immunization.

“Vaccination is the best way to protect yourself from severe symptoms when you get an infection, and it can also help reduce the long-term impact.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has lifted restrictions to contain Covid-19 in England, with booster doses and lower severity of the Omicron variant weakening the link between cases and deaths from the virus.

However, the UK still averages around 50,000 cases per day, and mild cases of Covid-19 can still lead to Covid-19 debilitation, fatigue-related symptoms, memory problems and brain fog.

The health agency said about 2% of Britons reported symptoms of long-term Covid disease, the most common being fatigue, shortness of breath and muscle or joint aches.

Of the four studies that compared long-term Covid symptoms before and after vaccination, three show that more people reported improvement in permanent coronavirus symptoms rather than worsening after vaccination.

Three other studies concluded that prolonged symptoms of the disease improved in those who were vaccinated compared to those who remained unvaccinated.

(Reporting by Alistair Smoot).