Some former COVID-19 patients who still suffer from long-term health problems have reported that their symptoms have temporarily subsided after receiving the coronavirus vaccine, according to a UK report.
Anecdotal reports show that between 20 and 50 percent of patients think their symptoms – which include mainly fatigue, headaches and brain fog – facilitate post-vaccination, according to the Telegraph.
“We are receiving people reporting improvements, and this is very widespread, about half of the people we are asking for,” said Dr. David Strain, senior clinical speaker at the University of Exeter.
Lou Barnes, who leads a support group of 4,000 people called Post Covid Syndrome, estimated that about 20 percent of members reported some improvement after receiving the injection.
But many people said the improvements were temporary, lasting about three weeks, and others reported that they also felt worse for a short period of time, noted Barnes.
Strain, who runs a long-term COVID clinic and is a member of a National Health Service task force on the disease, said a survey was being set up to analyze the reports.
“It gives a little hope to people who have been struggling with it for 12 months or more, just to feel a little better,” he told the newspaper.
“But also, as researchers, it gives us a lot of information: does it give us clues about how we should treat it? We need to look very carefully, ”said Strain.
The doctor also noted that “there is a big reporting bias”, since “the people who notice something remarkable are the ones who scream about it”.
Like Strain, Professor Danny Altmann, an immunologist at Imperial College London, said he was also in the process of creating research on the subject.
“It is very interesting because we still have no idea about the mechanisms of long COVID and what to do with patients, and also because many patients are very concerned about their immune status,” said Altmann.
Professor Eleanor Riley, an immunologist at the University of Edinburgh, said the anecdotal reports were “interesting”, but warned against taking them as a fact before conducting research on the subject.
“I think it is something to be followed by scientific research,” said Riley. “I don’t think we should jump to conclusions. It is possible that it is random. “