--- title: How Vaccination Affects the Risk of Long COVID | TIME description: In the pre-vaccine era of the pandemic, experts estimated that somewhere between 10% and 30% of people who caught COVID-19 had lingering symptoms of some kind and severity. Long COVID is the name adopted by people who suffer symptoms long after their initial infection. canonical: https://time.com/video/oMDuUUjl/ og:title: How Vaccination Affects the Risk of Long COVID og:description: In the pre-vaccine era of the pandemic, experts estimated that somewhere between 10% and 30% of people who caught COVID-19 had lingering symptoms of some kind and severity. Long COVID is the name adopted by people who suffer symptoms long after their initial infection. og:url: https://time.com/video/oMDuUUjl/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/oMDuUUjl/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Vaccination Affects the Risk of Long COVID twitter:description: In the pre-vaccine era of the pandemic, experts estimated that somewhere between 10% and 30% of people who caught COVID-19 had lingering symptoms of some kind and severity. Long COVID is the name adopted by people who suffer symptoms long after their initial infection. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/oMDuUUjl/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # How Vaccination Affects the Risk of Long COVID > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: How Vaccination Affects the Risk of Long COVID [Watch (HLS stream): How Vaccination Affects the Risk of Long COVID](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/oMDuUUjl.m3u8) (2:10)  _Published 2021-10-15. In the pre-vaccine era of the pandemic, experts estimated that somewhere between 10% and 30% of people who caught COVID-19 had lingering symptoms of some kind and severity. Long COVID is the name adopted by people who suffer symptoms long after their initial infection._ --- Jul 28, 2023 4:12 AM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Inside the First COVID-19 Vaccinations Given at Long-Term Care Centers in the U.S.](/video/TK88Xw3p/) ### Inside the First COVID-19 Vaccinations Given at Long-Term Care Centers in the U.S. [The Long Term Effects of Covid-19](/video/zLKnLASX/) ### The Long Term Effects of Covid-19 [FAQ: Who is Most at Risk for Severe Symptoms of COVID-19?](/video/PcDZhSH7/) ### FAQ: Who is Most at Risk for Severe Symptoms of COVID-19? --- ## Transcript Doctors often talk about COVID-19 in either or terms. Either you get a severe case that could land you in the hospital, or you have a fairly mild case that clears up in a week or two. But for the thousands, if not millions of Americans living with long COVID it's not that simple. Long COVID is the label often used by people whose symptoms linger for months or even more than a year after a coronavirus infection. These symptoms vary from person to person, but common ones include fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath and chronic pain. Doctors are still trying to understand why some people develop long COVID as well as how to treat it. Some experts think remnants of the virus linger in the body too long, causing lasting symptoms, while others think the virus can push the immune system into overdrive, essentially making it attack itself. But no one knows for sure. It's not even clear how many people have the condition. estimates range from 10% to 30% of unvaccinated individuals who get sick with COVID-19 which means millions of people could still be suffering. Now that vaccines are widely available, the situation is changing. vaccination lowers your odds of getting infected by the virus, which is the best defense against long COVID and the unlucky vaccinated people who do get infected have a lower chance of developing long COVID than they would if they were unvaccinated. New studies suggest but some people have gotten long COVID after a breakthrough infection and more will as time goes on. That means experts will need to keep searching for answers and treatments to keep both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated safe from this chronic condition. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How Vaccination Affects the Risk of Long COVID","description":"In the pre-vaccine era of the pandemic, experts estimated that somewhere between 10% and 30% of people who caught COVID-19 had lingering symptoms of some kind and severity. 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