Long Covid from the vaccine??

You’ve had your Covid vaccine. Maybe several shots. You’ve observed the societal safety measures ⸺ mask wearing, social distancing, avoiding all but the most essential places where people congregate. You congratulate yourself at having avoided a primary Covid infection; no sign of a fever, cough or tiredness. You have no need of a Covid PCR test.

The weeks, maybe months, go by. Then one day, ⸺ WHAM! You have a monumental elevation in heart rate when standing up. Difficulty drawing breath. Debilitating fatigue, ten times worse than you’ve ever experienced. Maybe later your fingers go white as blood circulation goes awry, and your nerves seem to jangle. In short, you have some of the symptoms of Long Covid.

But is it Long Covid? If so, where did it come from? From the vaccine? Or could it be from a sub-clinical Covid infection which passed unnoticed? This time a PCR test is Indicated. It returns negative.

A string of GPs all refrain from expressing an opinion, and the heart, blood, and lung tests they request come back negative; there is no imaging which will to show up Long Covid. There is no biomarker for the disease. So do you really have Long Covid? Maybe yes, maybe no; the disease is a black box. There is no established mechanism or treatment.

Some manufacturers of Covid vaccines report side effects not dissimilar to some of the symptoms of Long Covid in people who have never experienced the virus.

Since most Covid vaccines induce anti-spike protein antibodies, an autoimmune response triggered by spike protein may account for both Long Covid symptoms and the vaccine side effects. Or perhaps infection with some other virus (for example EBV which nearly all of us have had) leaves a persistent hypersensitivity to Covid vaccine. Another mechanism might be the tiny blood clots, which may remain after Covid infection or vaccination , damage blood vessel walls, and interfere with oxygen delivery to bodily tissues

Until a mechanism is worked out we will never know whether Covid vaccination can induce Long Covid, or simply induce Long Covid-like symptoms