Long COVID
This paper from the UK (mostly pre-vax) looked at long-term effects on the heart among people who had been infected with COVID-19. Those who had not been hospitalized had higher risks of heart issues over the study period (32–395 days later), but especially in the first 30 days after infection:
- 2.74 times the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), and
- 10.23 times the risk of death.
It was much worse for people who had been hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID:
- 27.6 times the risk of VTE,
- 21.6 times the risk of heart failure, and
- 17.5 times the risk of stroke, and
- 118 times the risk of all-causes death.
Even hospitalization with a secondary COVID-19 infection was bad news:
- 22.2 times the risk of a heart attack,
- 23.1 times the risk of VTE, and
- 63.97 times the risk of all-causes death.
I missed this paper from Estonia when it came out in April 2022, but it found that people who had been infected with COVID-19 were three times as likely to die in the following year as people who never had COVID-19. They were 2.1 times as likely to die from cardiovascular issues, 1.5 times as likely to die from cancer, 1.9 times as likely to die from respiratory system diseases.
This paper from Switzerland found that health care workers had fewer Long COVID symptoms the later it got (i.e. people infected with Classic had more symptoms than those who got Omicron).
As you might expect/hope, people who had been vaccinated three times had fewer than those with only one or two doses. However, oddly, the fewest symptoms were in people who had gotten no shots. (Note the wide error bars, though.)
I did not see any analysis about how the unvaccinated group might have differed from the vaccinated group. For example, if the unvaccinated group was a lot younger than the vaccinated groups, that might skew the numbers.
This paper from Thailand reported that for men, right after having COVID-19 infections, 64.7% had erectile dysfunction (ED), compared to ~40% in the general male population. After three months, the number post-COVID study participants with ED dropped to 50.3%.
Vaccines
This preprint from the USA and this preprint from Israel both found that antibody levels after a bivalent boost were no different from after a monovalent boost. This is disappointing. (They were no worse, so it’s still worth getting a shot!)
Based on this, I’m changing my advice. I had said that for Novavax vs. bivalent booster, the bivalent was probably better for what was circulating RIGHT NOW, while Novavax was probably better for the mystery next variant.
I now think that Novavax is probably a better booster for you to get now, regardless of whether you want to address right-now or next-scariant.
There still isn’t enough data to really prove which is better. A clinical trial comparing how many humans got sick with monovalent boosters, bivalent boosters, and Novavax boosters would be awesome, but I am not holding my breath waiting for that to happen. And remember that I am not a doctor.
This study from California found that two doses of Pfizer were pretty shit against Omicron. Two doses gave less than 50% effectiveness against anything — hospitalization, ER admission, urgent care, outpatient. (They didn’t look at death.) After six months, two doses of Pfizer was only 4% effective against hospitalization!
Three doses was better — at three months or less, the VE against ER visits was 71%, yay. However, it dropped fast. After six months, VE against hospitalization was only 38%.
Caveat1: these numbers had really wide error bars on them. That’s good, but… 🙁
Caveat2: they didn’t account for infection-acquired immunity.
This tweet from a highly respected lab in China says that blood from people with three CoronaVac boosters plus a breakthrough B.1 infection is shit against the upcoming strains:
Yeah, I know we don’t use CoronaVac here. But look at the SHAPE of the curves!
This preprint from the US found that, in mice, “common cold coronavirus” infections and COVID-19 vaccination did not affect each other. Vaccination didn’t make mice very much less susceptible to common colds; common colds didn’t change how effective the COVID-19 vaccination was.
This article reports that China has started administering an inhaled vaccine. Cross your fingers that this gives good mucosal immunity!
Pathology
This paper from Australia says that people who had COVID-19 cases had a 5.72 times risk of getting chilblains as the general populace. (I couldn’t tell easily if that was during the acute phase or afterwards.)
(I have never gotten chilblains, nor have I ever heard anybody talking about having chilblains themselves. Have you ever had chilblains? Where were you living?)
Transmission
This paper from the USA says that people who had depression, anxiety, perceived stress, loneliness, or worry about COVID-19 were 1.3 to 1.5 times more likely to catch COVID-19 as those who did not, and more people had more debilitating Long COVID.
This article reports that a study from the USA found that people who take statins regularly have 37% lower risk of dying from COVID-19.
Side Effects
This article says that despite the pandemic, graduation rates went up for the 2019-2020 school year.
Recommended Reading
This article argues that “Medium COVID” — lingering effects for the first two weeks after recovery from the acute phase — is what we should be worrying about.
This article from the US worries not about a “twindemic” — high levels of both COVID-19 and influenza — but a “tripledemic” with COVID-19, influenza, and RSV.