The US Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday disclosed nine $1 million grants that will support long COVID clinics in the country. The grants aim to expand access and care, create new delivery models, and foster best practices for managing long COVID. They’ll also fund education for the primary care community.
The news comes as a new study finds people who get their COVID-19 vaccine when they have long COVID may have fewer symptoms, better well-being and less inflammation. The study was published Sept. 15 in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases.
Long COVID (also called post-COVID condition, or PCC) affects about 10% to 30% of people who have COVID-19 but aren’t hospitalized and 50% to 70% of people who are hospitalized with COVID-19. The condition occurs when COVID-19 symptoms linger past 12 weeks of the acute infection.
Researchers wanted to know how getting a vaccine could affect people with long COVID. They evaluated 83 people who had SARS-CoV-2 and were diagnosed with long COVID before getting a vaccine — and followed them for up to 24 months.
At the start of the study, 44 hadn’t been vaccinated. The other 39 already had one or two doses. After getting the vaccine, 77.8% of people had improved well-being scores. Also, 7.4% had worsened scores while 14.8% had scores that didn’t change. Of the people, 86% had fewer symptoms, 8.3% had more symptoms and 5.6% said they had symptoms similar to before getting the vaccine.
The most common symptoms at the start of the study included fatigue, trouble focusing, trouble with memory, headaches and shortness of breath.
The scientists looked at bloodwork from the study participants and found that 16 cytokines and chemokines fell significantly after people got vaccinated. The lower levels are a sign that the vaccine eased inflammatory proteins. HIgh levels have been linked to increased COVID-19 severity and worse outcomes. The authors noted a significant reduction in systemic inflammatory cytokine/chemokine levels after vaccination, which was independent of how many doses of the vaccines people got.
More research on long COVID has emerged recently. This month, a study was released that found the risk of developing long COVID was higher for the Alpha, Delta and wild-type variants of COVID-19 — and lower with the Omicron variant. Those with long COVID are more likely to need long-term care.
