Does COVID-19 vaccination increase the risk of interstitial lung disease at a population level?

The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), continues to spread worldwide, with over 675 million individuals infected to date. The clinical course of the infection showed a wide range of severity, from asymptomatic cases to severe pneumonia with multiorgan failure requiring intensive care 1. Many individuals recovering from COVID-19 continue to face long-term conditions, including persistent respiratory symptoms 2 and impaired pulmonary function 3. Among these, post-COVID-19 interstitial lung disease (ILD) is one of the most severe complications. Myall et al. reported that 7% of patients had inflammatory ILD on chest computed tomography (CT) six weeks after hospital discharge 4. Footnotes This manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the ERJ Open Research . It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJOR online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article. Conflict of Interest: All authors have nothing to disclose.