Here’s another health benefit related to the COVID-19 vaccine

There are many health benefits associated with the COVID-19 vaccine, most notably the fact that it will keep you safe and alive during a global pandemic. That being said, a new study suggests that a major benefit of the COVID-19 vaccine is an improvement in your mental health.

Published in the journal PLOS One, the researchers tracked people who received their first COVID-19 vaccination between December 2020 and March 2021. People who had been vaccinated were less likely to be depressed than people who had not been vaccinated or had made a vaccination appointment but still needed to get the vaccination.

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Another interesting piece of data suggests that mental health benefits have been reported without getting a full vaccination. “The first dose of COVID-19 resulted in significant mental health improvements beyond improvements made since the peak of mental distress in Spring 2020,” the study concluded.

While the study didn’t look into why this happened, it makes perfect sense that people would feel better after the vaccine and the year we all went through. The mental health impact of the pandemic has long worried researchers and experts, believing that a year of fear, isolation, and economic stress is likely to lead to deterioration in mental health and an increased likelihood of substance abuse.

People who are vaccinated have less to worry and are less likely to get infected. You can go out and meet other people without the fear that surrounded those commitments of the vaccine existence.

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The benefits reported by researchers are likely to be short-term, which means that if the pandemic continues indefinitely and people get used to having their vaccines and adapt to their new lifestyles, they will likely go away. Still, it’s encouraging to see these results, which suggest that the vaccine’s benefits go beyond mere physical health.

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The vaccine gives people a lot of hope and an opportunity to return to a kind of normalcy where they can ride the bus or subway, go to work, and hang out with their friends and family without giving themselves to themselves or others to expose them to great risk.