COVID-19 vaccine reduces long COVID in children

Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, reduces the risk of serious acute illness in children and adolescents. However, its role in protecting against persistent health problems in the months after COVID-19, or “long COVID,” was less clear. Now, researchers from 17 health systems in the U.S., in work led by investigators at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), have found that vaccination provides moderate protection against long COVID. Vaccination also has a stronger effect in adolescents, who have a higher risk of developing long COVID than young children.

The findings of the large retrospective study, based on electronic health records analyzed as part of the National Institutes of Health’s Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) initiative, were published today in the journal Pediatrics.

While overall severity of COVID-19 has been lower in children than adults, the burden of long COVID has been difficult to accurately describe since the symptoms can vary widely and the exact ways the virus causes them are unknown. Some symptoms include brain fog, dyspnea, gastrointestinal dysfunction, generalized pain and fatigue, while others are more acute, like inflammatory reaction or heart problems.