Thread by @DrEricDing

Vaccine & #LongCovid benefit?

“I started getting texts/calls: hey, are patients with long COVID reporting that they’re feeling better after the vaccine’? When he started talking with patients: “It’s not 100%, but it does seem like to be ~1/3”. 🧵#COVID19 theverge.com/2021/3/2/22308…

2) “Early reports hint that people with persistent symptoms may improve after getting vaccinated. Information is still limited & largely anecdotal — but if pattern holds, it could help understand more about why symptoms of #COVID19 persist in some people, & offer path to relief.”

3) “Many of Griffin’s patients who improved had significant side effects after their first shot of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine. That’s common in people who’ve had COVID-19 before—they already have some level of antibodies, so the 1st shot acts more like a 2nd booster.”

4) “Then, patients with chronic symptoms started to report their smell was improving or weren’t as fatigued. “For some, it was short lived. But for a chunk, it actually persisted—got their 2nd shot out, saying, wow, they really feel like there’s light at the end of the tunnel”

5) “Many people who got sick during the first wave of the pandemic a year ago still aren’t fully recovered. Any hint of a path toward relief “would be nothing short of a miracle,” says @dianaberrent, founder of the COVID-19 survivors and long-haulers group @Survivor_Corps.

6) “There are plausible biological reasons vaccination could help people with long COVID, says @VirusesImmunity, an immunologist at Yale University.

7) “Scientists still don’t know for sure why some people have chronic symptoms, but 1 theory is that the virus or fragments of the virus stick around in their body. They’re not contagious, but leftovers continue to irritate the immune system. Vaccination could clear those out.

8) ““Potentially, those remnants are removed because you’re generating a lot of antibodies,” Iwasaki told The Verge.
Another theory is that, for some people, COVID-19 triggers long-lasting changes in the immune system, and it could turn on healthy cells and tissues.

9) “In that case, the vaccine might help by giving a jolt to the immune system. “It can reset some of those existing responses,” Iwasaki says. In that case, symptom improvement would probably be short-lived and only last as long as the vaccine’s kick does.

10) Longer discussion thread here by @VirusesImmunity

https://twitter.com/virusesimmunity/status/1366067849480048643

11) Stimulating innate immunity could be one way...

https://twitter.com/virusesimmunity/status/1366067860783644676

12) Great video animation on #LongCovid. 1 in 3 post discharge is a lot of people.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1355637599029899267

13) In a poll in @Survivor_Corps FB group said their symptoms improved slightly or went away almost completely. “We were really concerned that people were going to have bad reaction. It never occurred to us that they would actually improve,” @dianaberrent says.