People who had at least two COVID-19 vaccine shots were between 50 percent and 81 percent less likely to report long-term symptoms after infection, according to a study of nearly 1,000 participants.
About a third of the 951 study participants experienced long COVID, with the most common symptoms being fatigue, headache and weakness in limbs, the study, published in Nature, found. At the time of the Israeli study, Israel's COVID-19 vaccination policy allotted one dose to people who already had COVID-19, two shots to the general public and a booster for people 60 and older.
Persisting symptoms were more concentrated among older populations, but the study's authors said "the age-specific results should be interpreted with caution" because each age group is too small for statistical analysis.
"A plausible explanation for the association found in the older individuals could be that younger individuals have more physiological reserve and are therefore able to recover on their own, which is not the case in older adults," the researchers wrote.