July 18, 2024 -- Your chances of developing long COVID have significantly decreased since the pandemic began, offering a glimmer of hope and a sign of progress in the ongoing battle against the virus.
That’s according to a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, who conducted the study, said that the drop was caused by vaccinations and changes in the virus itself.
“You can see a clear and significant difference in risk during the delta and omicron eras between the vaccinated and unvaccinated,” Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, director of the Clinical Epidemiology Center at the VA St. Louis Health Care System and head of the research and development service, said in a statement. “So, if people think COVID is no big deal and decide to forgo vaccinations, they’re essentially doubling their risk of developing long COVID.”
Researchers analyzed the health records collected from March 1, 2020, through Jan. 31, 2022, for 441,583 veterans who were infected with COVID-19 and 4.7 million veterans who were not infected.
Among unvaccinated people, long COVID was developed by 10.4% infected with the original strain of COVID, 9.5% infected with the Delta strain, and 7.7% infected with Omicron.
Among vaccinated people, long COVID occurred in 5.3% of those infected with the Delta strain and 3.5% of those infected with Omicron.
Al-Aly noted that among people infected with the Omicron strain, the chances of heart, brain, kidney, and lung problems declined while the risk of problems with metabolic function and the GI system increased.
“Each variant has its own fingerprint,” Al-Aly said. “The original virus hit the respiratory system hard. Omicron targeted metabolic and GI issues. It’s important because while the risk of long COVID is quantitatively lower, a person can be at a higher risk of developing an illness based on the part of the body that the COVID variant targets.”
With long COVID, symptoms persist months or years after infection. Common symptoms include extreme fatigue, shortness of breath, loss of the sense of smell, and muscle aches.
According to the CDC’s Household Pulse Survey, 18.4% of American adults say they’ve experienced long COVID at some point.
