Can Breakthrough Infections Lead to Long COVID? For an Unlucky Few, Yes

When health experts talk about the remarkable efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, they typically point to their ability to prevent severe disease and death. Fully vaccinated people can still get “breakthrough” infections from the virus that causes COVID-19—but compared to an unvaccinated person, they’re more than 10 times less likely to be hospitalized or die from their illness, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) research. Officials often point to these impressive figures as evidence that we can tame COVID-19 into a mostly mild illness that behaves like a routine cold or flu, and thus with which we can coexist. After all, the vaccines were not designed to quash viral spread entirely; they were designed to defang the virus by preventing its worst outcomes. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] But people like April Zaleski know COVID-19’s worst outcomes aren’t limited to severe disease and death, even for the fully vaccinated. Zaleski, a 32-year-old from Idaho, caught COVID-19 in July 2021 after being vaccinated in January. She recovered after a couple weeks and thought the worst was behind her. But then her fatigue came back with force, along with brain fog, shortness of breath, vertigo and a skyrocketing heart rate. She began to suspect she had Long COVID, the name adopted by people who suffer symptoms long after their initial infection. Long COVID “was on my radar,” Zaleski says, “but ha...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news