{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,28]],"date-time":"2026-02-28T04:25:49Z","timestamp":1772252749123,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":21,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"15","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,7,29]],"date-time":"2022-07-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1659052800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JCM"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Patients previously infected with acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) may experience post-acute adverse health outcomes, known as long COVID. The most reported symptoms are fatigue, headache and attention\/concentration issues, dyspnea and myalgia. In addition, reduced aerobic capacity has been demonstrated in both mild and moderate COVID-19 patients. It is unknown whether COVID-19 vaccination mitigates against reduced aerobic capacity. Our aim was to compare the aerobic capacity of vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals previously infected with SARS-CoV-2. Methods: Individuals aged 18 to 65 years with laboratory-confirmed mild to moderate COVID-19 disease were invited to Ziv Medical Centre, Israel, three months after SARS-CoV-2 infection. We compared individuals unvaccinated at the time of infection to those vaccinated in terms of aerobic capacity, measured using symptom-limited cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET). Results: We recruited 28 unvaccinated and 22 vaccinated patients. There were no differences in baseline demographic and pulmonary function testing (PFT) parameters. Compared with unvaccinated individuals, those vaccinated had higher V\u2019O2\/kg at peak exercise and at the anaerobic threshold. The V\u2019O2\/kg peak in the unvaccinated group was 83% of predicted vs. 100% in the vaccinated (p &lt; 0.002). At the anaerobic threshold (AT), vaccinated individuals had a higher V\u2019O2\/kg than those unvaccinated. Conclusions: Vaccinated individuals had significantly better exercise performance. Compared with vaccinated individuals, a higher proportion of those unvaccinated performed substantially worse than expected on CPET. These results suggest that vaccination at the time of infection is associated with better aerobic capacity following SARS-CoV-2 infection.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jcm11154420","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,1]],"date-time":"2022-08-01T02:06:42Z","timestamp":1659319602000},"page":"4420","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Protective Effects of BNT162b2 Vaccination on Aerobic Capacity Following Mild to Moderate SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Cross-Sectional Study Israel"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Yair","family":"Blumberg","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Rivka Ziv Medical Center, Safed, Israel"},{"name":"Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed 1311502, Israel"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7323-0806","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Michael","family":"Edelstein","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rivka Ziv Medical Center, Safed, Israel"},{"name":"Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed 1311502, Israel"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2463-7105","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kamal","family":"Abu Jabal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rivka Ziv Medical Center, Safed, Israel"},{"name":"Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed 1311502, Israel"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ron","family":"Golan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rivka Ziv Medical Center, Safed, Israel"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Neta","family":"Tuvia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rivka Ziv Medical Center, Safed, Israel"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yuval","family":"Perets","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed 1311502, Israel"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Musa","family":"Saad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rivka Ziv Medical Center, Safed, Israel"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tatyana","family":"Levinas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rivka Ziv Medical Center, Safed, Israel"},{"name":"Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed 1311502, Israel"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Dabbah","family":"Saleem","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rivka Ziv Medical Center, Safed, Israel"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Zeev","family":"Israeli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rivka Ziv Medical Center, Safed, Israel"},{"name":"Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed 1311502, Israel"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Abu Raya","family":"Alaa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rivka Ziv Medical Center, Safed, Israel"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1922-9174","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gabby","family":"Elbaz Greener","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed 1311502, Israel"},{"name":"Department of Cardiology, Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem 9112001, Israel"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Anat","family":"Amital","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rivka Ziv Medical Center, Safed, Israel"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Majdi","family":"Halabi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rivka Ziv Medical Center, Safed, Israel"},{"name":"Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed 1311502, Israel"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,7,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"(2021, December 27). 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