Daniel Griffin, M.D., an infectious diseases clinician and researcher, heard concerns from many of his patients with chronic COVID-19 that symptoms could worsen post-vaccination. After talking with patients who were vaccinated, however, patients were reporting improvement in symptoms.* While this information is largely anecdotal, clinicians should continue to monitor whether the pattern holds in their long-hauler patients.

With what vaccines have patients seen improvement?

The Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines were shown to provide chronic COVID-19 patients with relief after the very first dose. Since people who had COVID-19 still have antibodies, the first dose acts as a “second booster,” whereas antibodies from the initial infection may be seen as the first.

Dr. Griffin’s patients with chronic symptoms started to report improvements, like a better sense of smell and feeling less fatigued. “For some of them, it was short-lived. But for a chunk, it actually persisted,” says Dr. Griffin. “They went ahead, got their second shot out, and are saying, wow, they really feel like there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”

This rings true as well in a Facebook group full of long-hauler COVID-19 patients, where about one-third (⅓) of 500 people said they felt improved symptoms at least two weeks after receiving the vaccine. 

It’s important to remember these surveys are small and do not lead to scientific proof that the vaccine was what led to symptom improvement, but these anecdotes give hope to many long-hauler COVID-19 patients who have suffered for months after their initial illness. Some people who were infected a year ago are still suffering in some way.

Theories about vaccination improving symptoms

Researchers are hypothesizing why the vaccine may be able to improve symptoms. There are a couple of theories circulating, such as 

• The virus, or fragments of the virus, stick around in their body and continue to irritate the immune system. By using the vaccine, “potentially those remnants are removed because you’re generating a lot of antibodies,” Akiko Iwasaki, M.D., an immunologist at Yale University, told The Verge.
• Another is that COVID-19 may trigger long-lasting changes in the immune system, and vaccination may give a jolt to the immune system. According to Dr. Isawaki, “It can reset some of those existing responses.” With this theory, however, symptom improvement may be more short-lived lasting only as long as the vaccine’s kick does.

Researchers will continue to look at the relationship between long-hauler COVID patients and vaccines. More rigorous survey data is needed to understand exactly what portion of people feel better after they get vaccinated. They should also look at whether different vaccines have different levels of effectiveness in improving chronic symptoms. 

In seeing that a number of long-hauler patients are finding some relief from the COVID-19 vaccine, others who have been suffering on a chronic level may now want to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Dr. Griffin explained that “[vaccination] doesn’t look harmful, and it may be therapeutic. I think it’s encouraging for people with long COVID to get signed up as soon as they can.”

*Wetsman, N. (2021, Mar. 2). Long COVID patients say they feel better after getting vaccinated. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/2/22308965/covid-vaccine-shots-symptoms-improve-chronic-long-haulers

Much about the novel coronavirus, i.e., COVID-19, is still not fully understood. As research progresses and our knowledge of the virus increases, information can change rapidly. We strive to update all of our articles as quickly as possible, but there may occasionally be some lag between scientific developments and our revisions.