Is the vaccine accidentally curing long COVID?

While most COVID survivors have to deal with symptoms for just a few weeks, some have been struggling to get rid of symptoms like fatigue, loss of odour, fever, and depression, for months on end. As of now, very little is known about long COVID, and researchers have just begun exploring this mysterious condition that affects more than one million people in the UK.

Long-COVID survivors

Meanwhile, some people who have been suffering from long COVID have noticed that their symptoms magically disappeared a few days after getting the vaccine.

WalesOnline shared a testimony from Tara Richardson, who was tested positive twice. Richardson had been dealing with chronic fatigue, severe headaches, and a loss of smell for almost an entire year, but her symptoms suddenly vanished after she got her AstraZeneca jab. She told WalesOnline:

Two weeks ago I got my text to go and get my Covid jab. I felt a bit rubbish a few hours after I got it. The next morning though my puppy came into my room and jumped up onto my bed and I was like, ‘oh my he stinks’ and then I realised I could smell properly again. As the day went on, I also realised I hadn’t got any aches or pains either. My long Covid since the jab hasn’t returned.

Richardson isn’t the only one who went through this shocking experience. Hawaii News Now also featured a similar story from Angela Keen. She was COVID-positive last March, and has had trouble with joint pain ever since. She got her Pfizer jablast week and has noticed a remarkable difference ever since. She said:

I haven’t felt this good for a year. I woke up without my alarm clock.

I don’t have any aches and pains today. It might be psychosomatic. I just feel so good and so positive and I’m ready for this to all go away for me.

No scientific evidence

The anecdotal evidence has prompted scientists to take a deeper look into why this is happening, and although research is being conducted to find answers, it is still too soon to jump into any conclusions. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said:

Thus far [this issue is] anecdotal.

Many people spontaneously get better anyway, and if you get vaccinated and you get better, you’re not sure whether it’s the vaccine or the spontaneous recovery. So you’ll have to do a randomised trial to determine that.

Researchers are looking to use the anecdotal evidence to investigate the phenomenon further, but for now they are relieved that the vaccine is not making the condition worse.

Dr Vanessa Bryant of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research said:

We're starting to put this together with anecdotal evidence, and there will be larger studies coming in behind.

We're still in the early days of understanding long COVID.