Can vaccinated people catch Covid for a long time? Doctors say the risk is “very, very low”

Coronavirus infections leading to long-term Covid-19 in fully vaccinated people are likely very rare, experts say.

Covid-19 vaccines have been shown to significantly reduce infections, as well as the risk of serious consequences of illness, including hospitalization and death. This means that if a fully vaccinated person is infected, the illness is much more likely to be mild.

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But for many long-haul Covid-19s, it was a mild infection that triggered their lingering symptoms, leaving many wondering if a mild breakthrough case in a fully vaccinated person could do the same.

It is theoretically possible, experts say, for this to happen. But doctors treating Covid-19 patients across the country argue it doesn’t appear to be a significant risk.

Groundbreaking infections resulting in a long Covid-19 are “quite rare,” said Dr Greg Vanichkachorn, an occupational medicine specialist who works with patients with post-Covid-19 syndrome at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Vanichkachorn’s observation, although based solely on what he saw in the clinic, resonates in other post-Covid-19 clinics.

Dr Michele Longo, assistant professor of neurology at Tulane University in New Orleans who works with long-distance patients, said she had not seen such patients as a result of a breakthrough infection. Neither has Dr. Maureen Lyons, medical director of the Care and Recovery from Covid-19 clinic at Washington University in St. Louis.

Dr Ziyad Al-Aly, clinical epidemiologist, also at the University of Washington, is studying the effects of Covid-19 vaccination on the risk of long-term Covid-19. His research, which is not yet complete, examines information on more than 5 million veterans in a database at the Department of Veterans Affairs, including 200,000 who have been diagnosed with Covid-19.

“Among people who get vaccinated and end up with a breakthrough infection, their risk of coming back to the clinic with a long manifestation of Covid is very, very low,” Al-Aly said.

Lyons warned that the lack of observed post-Covid-19 cases in those vaccinated “may well be a lag issue.” Indeed, given that Covid-19 vaccinations have started to roll out en masse over the past three to four months, it is possible that enough time has not passed to identify long-haul patients after their vaccinations.

Dr Natasha Altman, a cardiologist at UCHealth Hospital at the University of Colorado at Aurora, agreed it may be too early to understand the effects of vaccines on long-term symptoms of Covid-19.

“I think the trends are only really going to start to take hold in the next six months,” she said.

Al-Aly recognized this possibility. “It’s possible that along the way we would find out that maybe the vaccine only delayed the inevitable,” he said.

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But since vaccines have been shown to significantly reduce the risk of Covid-19 infection in general, injections remain “one of the best ways to lower your risk of getting post-Covid syndrome,” Vanichkachorn said.

It is estimated that up to a third of Covid-19 cases can lead to long-term illness. This suggests that of the nearly 34 million people diagnosed with Covid-19 in the United States, around 11 million may suffer the consequences of the disease for months or years.

“As everyone goes on with their lives,” Longo said, long-haulers “are still stuck in a rut struggling with this virus”.

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