{"id":1089,"date":"2021-09-22T16:51:59","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T21:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/betterpathology.com\/?p=1089"},"modified":"2022-09-17T15:54:30","modified_gmt":"2022-09-17T20:54:30","slug":"long-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/betterpathology.com\/?p=1089","title":{"rendered":"Long COVID"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

COVID-19, the disease of the pandemic, has two pathways.  In one pathway, viral infection directly causes the upper respiratory symptoms like runny nose, cough, fever, sore throat, and, in severe cases, pneumonia and respiratory failure.  The second pathways is associated with some of the more confounding symptoms<\/a> of COVID-19 like loss of taste and smell, myocarditis<\/a>, pericarditis, cardiac arrhythmias, migraines, cognitive deficits<\/a>, Guillain\u2013Barr\u00e9 syndrome<\/a>, Bell\u2019s Palsy<\/a>, and blood clots.  These symptoms sometimes appear with infection, but often they emerge after the acute illness is over, and they may last a long time.  This is what is known as \u201cLong COVID<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long COVID doesn\u2019t happen to everyone infected by the virus.  It seems to affect<\/a> women more than men, and the middle-aged more than the very young or the very old.  But for those affected, long COVID can be painful and debilitating.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are several ideas<\/a> about what causes Long COVID.  One plausible idea is that the immune response mounted to fight SARS-CoV-2 attacks the body\u2019s own cells.  In other words, Long COVID may be an autoimmune disease<\/a>.  Viewing this phase of COVID-19 as an autoimmune disease forms the basis<\/a> for the use of drugs known to tamp down the immune response as an early treatment or preventative for COVID-19.  These drugs may also help patients who are struggling with long COVID symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s intriguing that many vaccine complications overlap with long COVID symptoms.\u00a0\u00a0Vaccine fact sheets<\/a>\u00a0contain warnings for myocarditis\/pericarditis, blood clots, and Guillain-Barr\u00e9 Syndrome.\u00a0\u00a0These are all immune-mediate processes\u2014in other words,\u00a0autoimmune<\/a>\u00a0disease from an immune system primed to attack your own body.\u00a0\u00a0Vaccination is designed to mount an immune response to the\u00a0spike protein<\/a>, the tool the virus uses to pick the lock on the door to your body.\u00a0\u00a0If Long COVID is an autoimmune response, it\u2019s not surprising that vaccination may cause a similar response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another intriguing observation made by me and some of my colleagues, but one I\u2019ve not found published, has to do with the timing of adverse effects of vaccination.  I want to be clear that adverse effects of vaccination seem to be rare.  Yet, complications occur.  The observation is that people who\u2019ve had COVID-19 before taking a vaccine seem to have adverse effects of vaccine immediately if they have them at all.  Alternatively, people who have never had COVID-19 have adverse effects of vaccine weeks after vaccination if they have them at all.  It makes sense that people who\u2019ve had COVID-19 have an immune system primed for an immediate response, while those that have never been infected need time before the effects are seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These observations bring up a couple of questions.\u00a0\u00a0Can vaccination cause an autoimmune disease like Long COVID?\u00a0\u00a0And if so, will treatments for Long COVID be helpful to those people?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s still so much we don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COVID-19, the disease of the pandemic, has two pathways.  In one pathway, viral infection directly causes the upper respiratory symptoms like runny nose, cough, fever, sore throat, and, in severe cases, pneumonia and respiratory failure.  The second pathways is associated with some of the more confounding symptoms of COVID-19 like loss of taste and smell, myocarditis, pericarditis, cardiac […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-13","category-covid-19","category-vaccine"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":50,"url":"https:\/\/betterpathology.com\/?p=50","url_meta":{"origin":1089,"position":0},"title":"Names to Know","author":"Kevin Homer, MD","date":"October 26, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Before we can talk about testing, we must first agree on terminology.\u00a0\u00a0The official name of the disease of the pandemic is COVID-19, short for\u00a0Coronavirus Disease of 2019.\u00a0\u00a0The official name of the virus that causes COVID-19 is SARS-CoV-2, so named because it is a coronavirus (\u201cCoV\u201d) that produces Severe Acute Respiratory\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2020"","block_context":{"text":"2020","link":"https:\/\/betterpathology.com\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1213,"url":"https:\/\/betterpathology.com\/?p=1213","url_meta":{"origin":1089,"position":1},"title":"More Testing Less Freedom","author":"Kevin Homer, MD","date":"December 24, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"President Biden unveiled a new COVID initiative in a\u00a0press conference\u00a0this week.\u00a0\u00a0In addition to more COVID vaccinations, he promised more COVID testing.\u00a0\u00a0This is a bad idea which will create more fear and less freedom.\u00a0\u00a0Testing plays an important role in medical decision making, but indiscriminate testing can lead to harm.\u00a0\u00a0To be beneficial,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2021"","block_context":{"text":"2021","link":"https:\/\/betterpathology.com\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":269,"url":"https:\/\/betterpathology.com\/?p=269","url_meta":{"origin":1089,"position":2},"title":"Vaccine and Quarantine","author":"Kevin Homer, MD","date":"February 28, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"On February 10, the CDC updated\u00a0quarantine guidance\u00a0for vaccinated individuals exposed to COVID-19, giving some people a get out of jail free card. According to the new guidance, individuals who received their second FDA authorized mRNA vaccine injection between 14 and 90 days ago need not quarantine after exposure to COVID-19\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2021"","block_context":{"text":"2021","link":"https:\/\/betterpathology.com\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/betterpathology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Advance-to-go.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/betterpathology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Advance-to-go.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/betterpathology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Advance-to-go.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":391,"url":"https:\/\/betterpathology.com\/?p=391","url_meta":{"origin":1089,"position":3},"title":"A New Vaccine Warning: Guillain-Barr\u00e9 Syndrome","author":"Kevin Homer, MD","date":"July 15, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week, the FDA added a new statement to the Janssen vaccine\u00a0Factsheet for Healthcare Providers, warning of an increased incidence of Guillain-Barr\u00e9 Syndrome among vaccine recipients. 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