Study: Vaccines Might Help Long Covid

Bloomberg: Long Covid Patients’ Symptoms Helped After Vaccination In Study
Fewer Covid-19 patients reported lingering symptoms from the infection after getting vaccinated, according to a study that suggests the shots could help alleviate the burden of long Covid. A first vaccine dose after infection with the virus was associated with a 13% decline in the odds of having long Covid and a second shot with a 9% drop in the study published Thursday in the BMJ. Over the course of seven months in 2021, researchers regularly visited the households of more than 28,000 people to ask whether they were experiencing symptoms long after infection. (Fourcade and Hernanz Lizarraga, 5/18)

Stat: Study Links Vaccination After Covid Infection To Lower Odds Of Long Covid
Ever since Covid-19 vaccines became available, some people with long Covid have said vaccination eases the constellation of symptoms that persist weeks and months after their original infection clears. Research exploring this anecdotal evidence has so far been intriguing but inconclusive, in part because of the small numbers of people studied. A new study published Wednesday in BMJ solves the size problem, combing through responses from more than 28,000 adults taking part in the U.K.’s nationally representative Covid-19 Infection Survey. Vaccination after infection was associated with a lower likelihood of long Covid, the researchers report, but more data will be needed to clinch any cause-and-effect connection. (Cooney, 5/18)

In related news about long covid —

The New York Times: Over 75 Percent Of Long Covid Patients Were Not Hospitalized For Initial Illness, Study Finds 
More than three-quarters of Americans diagnosed with long Covid were not sick enough to be hospitalized for their initial infection, a new analysis of tens of thousands of private insurance claims reported on Wednesday. The researchers analyzed data from the first few months after doctors began using a special diagnostic code for the condition that was created last year. The results paint a sobering picture of long Covid’s serious and ongoing impact on people’s health and the American health care system. (Belluck, 5/18)

More on vaccines and the vaccine rollout —

CIDRAP: MRNA COVID Vaccines Show Stronger Immune Response Against Variants
COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, elicited stronger antibody responses against four variants of concern (VOCs) and the original virus compared to viral vector vaccines developed by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and AstraZeneca. The research is published in PLOS Medicine. The study was conducted by using blood samples gathered from 165 healthcare workers in the Netherlands 3 and 4 weeks after first and second vaccinations, respectively, for the Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca vaccines, and at 4 and 8 weeks after J&J vaccine administration. (5/18)

The New York Times: Since You’re Already Getting A Flu Shot, Why Not One For Covid, Too? 
As the coronavirus morphs into a stubborn and unpredictable facet of everyday life, scientists and federal health officials are converging on a new strategy for immunizing Americans: a vaccination campaign this fall, perhaps with doses that are finely tuned to combat the version of the virus expected to be in circulation. The plan would borrow heavily from the playbook for distributing annual flu shots, and may become the template for arming Americans against the coronavirus in the years to come. (Mandavilli, 5/18)

Oklahoman: COVID-19 Vaccines Could Have Saved Over 5,800 Lives In Oklahoma
Thousands of COVID-19 deaths could have been prevented in Oklahoma if more of the state’s residents had been vaccinated, a new analysis has found. If Oklahoma had reached 100% vaccination of its adult population, more than 5,800 deaths could’ve been avoided. At 90% vaccinated, over 4,300 could have been prevented, and at 85%, 3,600 lives might have been spared, the analysis showed. As the nation reached the staggering 1 million mark for the COVID-19 death toll this week, Oklahoma’s toll climbed over 16,000. (Branham, 5/18)

NPR: Republican-Leaning Areas Continue To Face More COVID Deaths
Even with widely available vaccines and newly effective treatments, residents of counties that went heavily for Donald Trump in the last presidential election are more than twice as likely to die from COVID-19 than those that live in areas that went for President Biden. That's according to a newly-updated analysis from NPR, examining how partisanship and misinformation are shaping the pandemic. NPR examined COVID deaths per 100,000 people in roughly 3,000 counties across the U.S. from May 2021, the point at which most Americans could find a vaccine if they wanted one. Those living in counties that voted 60% or higher for Trump in November 2020 had 2.26 times the death rate of those that went by the same margin for Biden. Counties with a higher share of Trump votes had even higher mortality rates. (Wood and Brumfiel, 5/19)

KHN: This Rural, Red Southern County Was A Vaccine Success Story. Not Anymore
At a glance, it seemed like a Southern pandemic success story in a most unlikely place. A small county northeast of Chattanooga, along the twisting banks of Chickamauga Lake, for much of the past year has reported the highest covid-19 vaccination rate in Tennessee and one of the highest in the South. Meigs County, which is overwhelmingly white, rural, and conservative — three demographics that strongly correlate with low vaccination rates — appeared to have broken a pattern of hesitancy and distrust that has stymied vaccination efforts across the U.S. (Kelman, 5/19)