COVID-19 patients who had received two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine reported 8 of the 10 most common long-COVID symptoms 50% to 80% less often than their unvaccinated counterparts, finds an ongoing Israeli study published in the Nature journal npj Vaccines.

A team led by Bar-Ilan University researchers invited adults tested for COVID-19 at three affiliated hospitals in northern Israel from March 2020 to November 2021 to complete an online questionnaire about demographics, vaccination status, and any symptoms they had or continued to experience. The research was published Aug 26.

35% of infected patients had persistent symptoms

Nearly 3,500 people responded to the questionnaire, including 951 who tested positive for COVID-19. Of the 2,447 uninfected participants, 0.9% had received one vaccine dose, 48.8% received two doses, 30.4% received three doses, and the remainder were unvaccinated. Of the 951 infected participants, 36% had received one vaccine dose, and 31% received at least two.

The vaccinated group completed their questionnaire after a median of 4 months after diagnosis, compared with 8 months in the unvaccinated group.

Among the 951 infected adults, 67% reported at least one symptom at diagnosis. Sixty-nine percent of the unvaccinated group reported one or more symptoms at diagnosis, compared with 57% of those vaccinated with two doses and 74% of one-dose recipients.

By questionnaire completion, 35% of the 951 COVID-19 patients said they hadn't fully recovered from their illness, reporting lingering fatigue (22%), headache (20%), limb weakness (13%), and persistent muscle pain (10%).

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