New vaccines best defence for 65 mn people suffering long Covid, says experts

San Francisco: As more than 65 million people worldwide have suffered from the constant, crippling symptoms of long Covid for months and years, experts said vaccines based on Nobel Prize-winning mRNA technology provide updated protection.

The new vaccines, according to experts, are especially important as we enter the winter season when Covid-19, flu, and RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus) infections are on the rise, reports Forbes.

"The only way to prevent long Covid is to not be infected. That makes a new series of updated vaccines an essential tool in our ongoing fight against Covid-19," Matthew Binnicker, Director of clinical virology at the Mayo Clinic was quoted as saying.

They (the vaccines) reduce the chance of getting Covid-19 and long Covid and can mitigate the impact of both, he added.

In earlier versions, the vaccines were developed by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech using messenger RNA technology.

However, Dave Wessner, a biology professor at the US-based Davidson College, told to Forbes, that the mRNA has been altered to trigger antibodies that protect against the latest subvariants of the Omicron strain.

"For the foreseeable future, we probably can expect updated Covid-19 shots to be released periodically," he said.

Moreover, Dr Omer Awan, Professor and Vice Chair of Education at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said together, these new shots and the protein-based Novavax, which received approval earlier this month, should target subvariants of Omicron that are still evolving and may reduce severe illness and hospitalisation.

Meanwhile, a new study has said that dietary creatine may help alleviate symptoms of long Covid.

Creatine supplements are popular among fitness enthusiasts, due to their potential for boosting strength and helping in post-workout recovery. Researchers from the Norway-based University of Agder conducted the study on 12 individuals and showed that taking dietary creatine for three months substantially improved feelings of fatigue.