In addition to protecting against severe disease and death from COVID-19, the vaccines also protect against long Covid, a new study suggests.
Scientists in the UK found that fully vaccinated Brits who got breakthrough cases were about half as likely to report long Covid symptoms as unvaccinated people who were infected.
In addition, the researchers found that just 0.2 percent of study patients who were fully vaccinated later tested positive for Covid - demonstrating the vaccines' ability to prevent infection.
The study was based on self-reported symptoms from a Covid tracking app, and further research is needed to back up these findings.
But Dr Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), called the study 'encouraging' in a commentary article on Tuesday.
Vaccination protects against long Covid in addition to severe disease, a new study finds. Pictured: A Pittsburgh resident gets vaccinated at a clinic run by the Allegheny County Health Department, September 2021
Fully vaccinated patients who got Covid were about half as likely to have long-term symptoms (for over 28 days) as unvaccinated patients, the researchers found
The Covid vaccines currently available in the U.S. have proven to be highly effective at protecting people against severe disease and death.
Out of more than 176 million Americans who had been fully vaccinated against Covid by early September, just 14,000 had a breakthrough infection leading to hospitalization or death.
To a lesser degree, the Covid vaccines also protect recipients against simply getting infected with Covid and transmitting the virus to others.
But for many clinicians and patients, long Covid - the condition in which patients suffer Covid symptoms for weeks or months after their infection - has been an unanswered question.
One study of healthcare workers in Israel revealed that long Covid is possible after a breakthrough infection.
The Israeli researchers found that one in five breakthrough cases resulted in long Covid - but that was a small study, including just 39 breakthrough cases in total.
A new study from the UK similarly shows that long Covid is possible after a breakthrough infection - yet the risk of long-term symptoms is much lower for vaccinated patients than for the unvaccinated.
The study was published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases in early September.
For this study, researchers at King's College London utilized data from the COVID Symptom Study app, a free mobile app developed by health company ZOE.
This app allows Brits to track their Covid symptoms on a daily basis, while also logging test results, vaccination status, and other health information.
Over 1.2 million app users reported
