Covid-19 vaccines 'can reduce symptoms of Long Covid'

Covid-19 vaccines can reduce symptoms of Long Covid, a new study has found.

A team of researchers discovered that mRNA vaccines, such as Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna, were the most effective in alleviating some symptoms of the condition.

Long Covid, or post-Covid-19 syndrome, affects survivors of the virus even if they've only had mild symptoms when infected, and signs of the condition, including fatigue, insomnia, skin rashes, and brain fog, can last for weeks, if not months.

The researchers analysed more than 800 people in the study, who all suffered from Long Covid, and participants were asked to wait a week after receiving their first vaccine before recording their responses.

Results showed that 56.7 per cent of respondents experienced an overall improvement in symptoms, with 24.6 per cent unchanged and 18.7 per cent reporting an increase in their symptoms.

Those who had Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccines had more improvements in symptoms, with the latter reducing fatigue, brain fog and muscle pain, compared with those who had the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab.

Analysis author Ondine Sherwood, from LongCovidSOS, said the data was "very encouraging", but researchers were unaware of how long the effects would last.

Dr David Strain, who also served as an analysis author said that while there wasn't one treatment that would fix everyone with Long Covid, the initial results from the study were positive.

“There isn’t a blood pressure tablet that fixes everybody... and similarly, there’s not one Long Covid treatment that’s going to fix everyone – but the fact that one treatment does fix something means that there’s bound to be other treatments out there that will fix others," he explained.