Is severe Covid-19 associated with fast aging?

The advent of Covid-19 pandemic has been linked to several theories, misconceptions, assumptions, and even consequences. The assumptions over the use of Covid-19 vaccine have remained unabated, with one recently becoming viral in the social media that ‘covid-19 vaccinations speed up the aging process within the human body, and those who are fully vaccinated will age faster than those who are not vaccinated’. Although this opinion has not been substantiated scientifically, it has gained momentum.  

Make no mistake, a pandemic like Covid-19 and many other infectious diseases can easily be contained through appropriate vaccination. For over 100 years vaccines have saved the lives of many, prevented several infectious diseases or severe illnesses. The Covid-19 vaccine roll out was largely regarded by several scientists as being a life saver and a catalyst to the end of the pandemic even though countries have now learned to exist with the virus.

About the narrative that Covid-19 vaccines speed up aging, scientists have found no evidence that the vaccines speeds up aging. Rather, many scientists agree that Covid-19 shots prevents risks of severe disease that could result in death.

Although previous scientific findings indicate that epigenetic aging is altered in viral infections, the covid-19 shots are believed to reverse this effects in Covid-19 patients.

A lot of scientific studies have been carried outs to evaluate the risk facors of Covid-19 infection. In most of these studies the scientific common point is that SARS-CoV-2 (Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) infection results in accelerated epigenetic aging.

According to Lourov and Vorsanova (2022),

“SARS-CoV-2 interactions with cells of the central nervous system are able to increase the risk for early manifestations of aging-related brain disorders and/or premature brain deterioration mediated by genome and chromosome instability”

In another study published in Advanced Biomedical Research, the researchers hypothesized that “the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and its long-term complications will lead to premature aging (in terms of health) of many people in the world”

These are few of the many scientific findings about Covid-19 suggesting possible aging effect which could as well occur in many other severe diseases. Injuries accumulated in various severe diseases could exacerbate age-related diseases. However, Covid-19 vaccines might reverse these effects according to scientific opinions.