Study Finds C#VID Vaccination Independently Associated With Long C#VID Syndrome

People who receive two doses of a C#VID-19 vaccine may be more likely to develop long-C#VID, a new study finds.

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In the study published in PLOS One, researchers examined data from 487 and 371 individuals at four weeks and six months post-SARS-CoV-2 infection, respectively, to estimate the incidence, characteristics, and predictors of long C#VID among patients. Long C#VID symptoms were reported by 29.2 percent of participants four weeks following infection. This number dropped to 9.4 percent at six months, indicating symptoms may diminish over time.

Researchers found that the greater the severity of infection a patient had, the more likely they were to experience long C#VID. The incidence of long C#VID at four weeks of follow-up in those who experienced mild/moderate disease was 23.4 percent compared with 62.5 percent in those with severe cases.

At six months, the incidence of long C#VID was considerably lower. For those with mild/moderate infection, only 7.2 percent reported symptoms compared with 23.1 percent in those with severe/critical cases. The most commonly reported symptom was fatigue. Other symptoms included cough, cognitive dysfunction or brain fog, and loss of taste and smell.

During the four-week follow-up, patients were more likely to experience long C#VID if they had preexisting medical conditions, a higher number of symptoms during the acute phase of C#VID-19 illness, if their infection was more severe or resulted in hospitalization, or if they had received two COVID-19 v#ccine doses.

Although previous v#ccination was associated with long C#VID, the authors could not find “any interaction effect of C#VID-19 v#ccination and acute C#VID-19 severity on causing Long COVID.”

This implies that prior v#ccination "was independently associated with the occurrence of long-C#VID," cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough explained in a recent Substack post.

How C#VID-19 Vaccines May Contribute to Long C#VID

Nearly 7 percent of U.S. adults surveyed in 2022 said they've experienced long C#VID—a condition commonly thought only to be associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Although definitions of long C#VID differ, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention broadly defines long C#VID as “signs, symptoms, and conditions that continue to develop after acute C#VID-19 infection” that can last for “weeks, months, or years.” The term “long C#VID” is also used to refer to post-acute sequelae of SARS CoV-2 infection (PASC), long-haul C#VID, and post-acute sequelae of C#VID-19.

U.S. regulatory agencies claim vaccinating against C#VID-19 can reduce the risk of developing long C#VID. One theory is that C#VID-19 v#ccines prevent severe disease, and as researchers noted in the PLOS One study, severe disease is a predictor of developing the condition. However, some research suggests the condition may be caused by an immune overreaction to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that C#VID-19 v#ccines use to induce antibodies.

One theory is that v#ccination may cause some people to generate a second round of antibodies that target the first. These antibodies could function like spike protein, which targets the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor—a cell surface protein—and enables the virus to enter cells. Like spike protein, these “rogue antibodies” might also bind to the ACE2 receptor and disrupt ACE2 signaling, which can cause conditions associated with long C#VID.

“In my practice, the most severe cases of long-C#VID are in v#ccinated patients who also had severe and or multiple episodes of SARS-CoV-2 infection,” Dr. McCullough wrote on X. In his recent Substack post, he said he believes long C#VID symptoms are due to the retention of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in cells and tissues after SARS-CoV-2 infection.

When people receive an mRNA C#VID-19 v#ccine, this produces a “massive additional load of full-length Spike protein” that can circulate in the blood for six months or longer, he wrote.

Scientists from the National Institutes of Health in 2022 conducted an observational study (posted as a preprint but never published) of 23 individuals with long C#VID. Researchers found that a “variety of neuropathic symptoms may manifest after SARS-CoV-2 v#ccinations and in some patients might be an immune-mediated process.”

In a February study published in the Journal of Medical Virology, researchers examined the levels of spike protein and viral RNA circulating in patients hospitalized for C#VID-19 with and without long C#VID. They found that spike protein and viral RNA were more likely to be present in patients with long C#VID. In patients with long C#VID, 30 percent were positive for spike protein and viral RNA, whereas none of the individuals without long C#VID were positive for both.

In a 2023 study in the European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences, researchers analyzed the serum of 81 individuals with long C#VID syndrome and found viral spike protein in one patient after the infection had cleared and yielded a negative C#VID-19 test, and v#ccine spike protein in two patients two months after vaccination.

“This study, in agreement with other published investigations, demonstrates that both natural and v#ccine spike protein may still be present in long-C#VID patients, thus supporting the existence of a possible mechanism that causes the persistence of spike protein in the human body for much longer than predicted by early studies,” the authors wrote.

Authored by Megan Redshaw via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),