Vaccines and Long COVID

Angie SzumlinskiHealth

In a recent article published in MedPage Today, medical experts at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) annual meeting discussed COVID-19 vaccines and “long hauler” symptoms.

“The question of vaccines and different neurological conditions has been studied over the years” said Walter Koroshetz, MD, director o the National institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). “We don’t have any real concerns about the COVID vaccine being any different”. “The only thing that we’ve seen looking back, is people who had Guillain-Barre that occurred after a vaccine; there was some concern. That was a very small population of people”.

With post-acute or “long” COVID, recently named by NIH as post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), “we know very little, particularly about the biological underpinnings of what people are suffering with”, Koroshetz said. “We do know, unfortunately, that it’s not a minor problem”, he added “we also know now that the hope that this might be something like infectious mononucleosis where it might take you six months to recover and then you’re going to be fine, there’s certainly evidence now that for some people that’s not happening; that people still are having trouble out past six months. So this is a real challenge to us”. Stay well, mask up indoors and stay tuned!