Long-haul carriers report relief of symptoms after being shot

Sheri Paulson had problems getting out of bed a few months after her diagnosis of Covid-19.

The 53-year-old North Dakota resident and her family fell ill after attending a wedding in August. Paulson, an endurance athlete who runs a farm outside Fargo, will later suffer from fatigue, cerebral fog and an increased heart rate, which led doctors to advise her to stop exercising and participate in cardiac rehabilitation.

It wasn’t until about five days after he received his first Pfizer shot in February that he began to feel better.

“Suddenly, I couldn’t sleep after cardiac rehabilitation,” said Paulson, who also suffers from multiple sclerosis. “And then I started going for walks with my dog. Then I said to myself, ‘Hmm, I think I’ll run a little too.'”

Some people who have suffered from persistent and often debilitating symptoms a few months after the first fight with the virus now say they find relief after being vaccinated, confusing doctors and other health experts. Survivor Corps, a patient support group for people with so-called long Covid, recently surveyed nearly 900 of its members and found that 41% of them reported a slight relief to complete recovery shortly after receiving the shots. .

The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 1 in 10 patients with Covid-19 has a persistent state of health 12 weeks after receiving the virus. Researchers at the University of Washington published data in February that a third of patients reported ongoing symptoms, including fatigue, shortness of breath and sleep disturbances, which persisted for up to nine months.

Symptoms of Long Covid, which researchers now call the Post-Acute Sequelae of Covid-19 or PASC, can develop well after the initial infection, and the severity can range from mild to disabling, according to public health officials and health experts.

One of the largest global studies published in early January found that many people suffering from ongoing illnesses after infection could not return to work at full capacity six months later. The study looked at more than 3,700 people between the ages of 18 and 80 in 56 countries.

Diana Berrent, who founded the Survivors Corps just over a year ago, suffered for months at Covid before most of her symptoms resolved on her own last year. She said some members of the organization were very hesitant at first to get vaccinated. Members feared, Berrent said, that reported side effects from the shots would make their symptoms worse.

“We really expected the worst from vaccines,” she told CNBC in a telephone interview. “You could have turned me upside down when I found out that some people are starting to get better because it was so far out of our expectations.”

They are not alone. Facebook and Twitter are full of stories from people who testify, to their own surprise, that their symptoms diminished or even disappeared after receiving a Covid-19 vaccine.

The cause of persistent symptoms is not yet well understood by immunologists and other health experts.

Most studies have focused on people with a severe or fatal illness, not on those who have recovered, but who still report persistent side effects, the so-called long carriers. The virus is also relatively new – discovered just over a year ago – so there is no long-term data.

The National Institutes of Health launched an initiative in February to study long-term Covid and to identify the causes and potential treatments for individuals. NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins said at the time that the researchers hope to understand the biological cause behind the prolonged symptoms.

Also, doctors do not know why some patients with long Covid say they feel better after immunization. Discovering this, experts say, could provide new information about what is behind the persistent symptoms, as well as potential new treatments to combat it.

One theory, according to Yale immunologist Akiko Iwasaki, is that vaccines help eliminate the so-called “viral reservoir,” in which the virus can persist in the body and cause chronic symptoms. The robust immune response induced by vaccines can help eliminate any remaining virus, eliminating symptoms, said the scientist, who has been studying Covid for a long time.

“This is probably the easiest way” vaccines could help people, she told CNBC in a telephone interview. “If necessary, people will be healed by long Covid and there will be wonderful news.”

Iwasaki also hypothesized that Covid could cause an autoimmune disease in which immune cells adversely affect the body. In that case, the vaccines could provide “temporary relief” of symptoms, and patients may eventually need to return for another dose, she said.

There are no long-term data on how people feel after the vaccine, she said. “It simply came to our notice then [hypothesis] it is true, then it will not be a long-term relief. “

Darren Brown, a 37-year-old physiotherapist based in the UK, said his symptoms returned a few weeks after receiving the first dose of Pfizer vaccine.

Brown suffered from fatigue, restless sleep and coordination disorders for several months. He said his long senses of Covid increased completely to about three weeks after receiving the first blow. But just days before the second dose, he felt symptoms begin to return.

“I’m starting to notice that I’m getting more and more tired,” he said. “The level I thought I would be able to push, the threshold, felt reduced and I would have nothing in me after I returned to work. I just had to go to bed after a day at work.”

He is feeling better from the second dose, but said he was worried his symptoms might return again.

“I am very cautious that this may not be long lasting,” he said. “But I’m also very overwhelmed by the excitement that it’s high for the moment.”

Paulson, a farmer in North Dakota, said he still has some symptoms, but fatigue and brain fog have disappeared since the second hit on March 18. She added that she is grateful that she is doing well, especially since many others have died of the disease.

“There are always things that put life in perspective for you and put you on your feet,” said Paulson, who also works for a Massachusetts biotechnology company.

While reports of long-term relief of Covid may be good news, they are still only anecdotal, said Dr. Paul Offit, a voting member of the FDA’s Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Organic Products.

He added that there must be a formal study to determine if vaccines actually help, he said.

Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Toronto, echoed Offit’s claims, saying he was skeptical but “open-minded.”

“This is an answerable question and I hope we have decent data that can confirm or disprove this,” Bogoch said. “Otherwise it’s just a bunch of collective anecdotes”

Iwasaki told CNBC that he intends to conduct a study in collaboration with the Survivor Corps, analyzing the blood samples of patients with Covid long before and after vaccination. She said she hopes she can explain the relief some patients experience after vaccination.

The study is still in the planning stages, she said, adding, “We are working hard to get this up and running.”

“I have received numerous emails and DMs on Twitter about patients’ experiences … and I hear every day from people who feel better about getting the vaccine,” she said. “Where I live from seems encouraging.”

– CNBC’s Noah Higgins-Dunn contributed to this report.