Breakthough Infections Are Less Likely to Lead to Long COVID-- British Study Suggests

Study: Vaccination lowers long Covid risk, even when people are infected The research is among the earliest evidence that immunization reduces the risk of long Covid even when a breakthrough infection occurs. Andrew Joseph STAT

People who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 appear to have a much lower likelihood of developing long Covid than unvaccinated people even when they contract the coronavirus, a study published Wednesday indicated.

The research is among the earliest evidence that immunization substantially decreases the risk of long Covid even when a breakthrough infection occurs. Already, researchers had said that by preventing many infections entirely, vaccines would reduce the number of cases of long Covid, but it wasn’t clear what the risk would be for people who still got infected after vaccination.

“We found that the odds of having symptoms for 28 days or more after post-vaccination infection were approximately halved by having two vaccine doses,” researchers wrote in the study, published in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases. “This result suggests that the risk of long Covid is reduced in individuals who have received double vaccination, when additionally considering the already documented reduced risk of infection overall.” ...