We Just Got More Evidence That Long COVID Is a Brain Injury
The exact nature of long COVID is still coming to light, but we just got some of the best evidence yet that this debilitating condition stems from a brain injury.
Using high-resolution scanners, researchers at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford have shown microscopic, structural abnormalities in the brainstems of those recovering from COVID-19.
Signs of brain inflammation were present up to 18 months after first contracting the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
“We show that the brainstem is a site of vulnerability to long-term effects of COVID-19, with persistent changes evident in the months after hospitalization,” the authors of the study conclude.
https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awae215
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I think it’s important for people to realize:
A very bad cold or flu can totally damage your body and is how lots of older folks go unfortunately.
Covid without a vaccine would have been a terrible sickness.
What bugs me the most is so many people who don’t understand logical fallacies kept saying just wait a year or two and you’ll see mass deaths and weakened immunity… and they are conveniently silent now, probably blaming fires on DEI or something stupid like that.
I got it before the pandemic shut down. in February of 2020. I was working in a high contact environment with high risk. I ended up sick, then sicker, then my whole team was sick, and out of work. we were told to do training as wfh and we’d be back when we felt better. it felt like that wasn’t coming. I got sicker and bedridden, my dr prescribed a steroid inhaler and wasn’t sure what it was. then sent out some labs and said ‘inconclusive’. i stayed sick. moving from the bed into the attached bathroom and back was a 4 steo with breaks sitting on the floor process. i lost my job. i went on unemployment. it was another half of a month before I went back to the doctor. Covid. and they had no options for me but to wait it out. it wasnt bad enough.
I got walking pneumonia last year. Took some antibiotics and got rid of it, but it basically brought back my childhood asthma. I’ve been stuck with it for about 10 months now. Really eye opening to me how long it has lasted.
They are seeing all these mass deaths. According to the antivaxx crowd almost every single person who gets sick or dies could have prevented this by not getting vaxxed. They don’t care, that this is absolute bullshit.
Covid without a vaccine would have been a terrible sickness.
And yet here in Denmark you can’t get the booster if you’re not old or very sick.
I image that’s because of the cost. In the US it costs $207 of you don’t have insurance when it was free for everyone until last summer.
Yeah pharmacies can offer the shot but since there is no demand it is not actually available , I believe it was around 100 USD
conveniently silent
Always. When the previous conspiracy theory / rapture date / return of JFK / illuminati plot doesn’t turn out to be true, there’s no talking about it or self reflection, it’s just right onto the next conspiracy theory / rapture date / return of JFK / illuminati plot.
That was my old boss. You described them to a T in Re: to the mass deaths in 2 years. She was an absolute idiot, and I have no doubt would put her political party over her own personal safety again if she knew Democrats were already doing the same as she needed to. She is incapable of thinking rationally.
Do you have a source for claiming it’d be worse without the vaccine? I haven’t seen any studies show it lessens the severity of brain damage caused by infections.
What I’ve seen is claims that even the asymptomatic infections are causing brain damage.
Better not get vaccinated, because the vaccine kills you and covid is just another harmless flu anyway… oh wait.
Seriously though, antivaxxers already have some sort of psychological issues going on, so adding a literal brain injury to the list might not even make a big difference at that point.
I went looking for data, because my knee-jerk was to assume people who get vaccinated are more likely to live, and thus more likely to get long covid.
But here’s what I found. The researchers found that the rate of new Long COVID cases declined with each variant, and that the numbers of cases were significantly lower in the vaccinated cohorts.
I’m just adding to the discourse.
Indeed! Too bad facts don’t work when talking to conspiracy theorists. Regardless, that’s an interesting observation to the rest of us.
na, vaccines cause the immune response to be better overall. which also lowers the chances of extreme damage from occurring. you can think of death as the most extreme form of damage. but if it reduces death by 60% you’ll see similar reductions for things like brain injury.
COVID makes you dumber, but what happens if you start out dumb?
The current administration awards you a place in office.
Even lower intelligence score? As far as D&D rules are concerned, you would get knocked unconscious if your intelligence drops to zero.
Should probably also limit new max intelligence after you regain consciousness. That seems to be the case IRL.
Sounds like a fun (and terrifying) idea for homebrew rules. I asked Mistral to write suitable rules, and here’s what what I ended up with.
–
When a character contracts COVID-19, they must make a Constitution saving throw (DC 15). On a failed save, the character develops Long COVID. The effects of Long COVID are varied and can include fatigue, shortness of breath, and other physical ailments. However, the most feared complication is brain injury.
Brain Injury
Brain injury from Long COVID reduces a character’s Intelligence score. To determine the extent of the damage, the character must make a roll based on their current Intelligence score:
Roll a d20: The result of this roll will determine the severity of the brain injury. Modify the Roll: Subtract the character’s Intelligence modifier from the roll. For example, if the character has an Intelligence score of 14 (modifier +2), subtract 2 from the d20 roll. Determine Intelligence Loss:
- 1-5: Minor brain injury. The character loses 1 point of Intelligence.
- 6-10: Moderate brain injury. The character loses 2 points of Intelligence.
- 11-15: Severe brain injury. The character loses 3 points of Intelligence.
- 16-20: Critical brain injury. The character loses 4 points of Intelligence.
New Hard Maximum
Once the Intelligence loss is determined, the character’s new Intelligence score becomes their hard maximum for the rest of the game. This means that even with magical healing, potions, or other means of restoring Intelligence, the character cannot exceed this new maximum.
Oh, wait. That means that if you do drop to zero, you’ll be in permanent coma for the rest of the game without any hope of recovery. I guess I should add some exception, that allows to you recover back to 1 point, but no higher than that.
You get an overflow error and become a genius.
There is no floor except the for the artificial one built out of privilege.
Things can always be worse.
The majority of people with Long COVID were vaccinated. (Because the majority of people were vaccinated and vaccination only slightly reduces chances of long COVID).
Also, many long COVID cases happened before the vaccines even came out.
So I don’t think your attitude of victim blaming really works here.
How do you know that the majority of people with Long COVID were vaccinated. This 2023 study says
Current studies suggest that covid-19 vaccines might have protective and therapeutic effects on long covid. More robust comparative observational studies and trials are needed, however, to clearly determine the effectiveness of vaccines in preventing and treating long covid.
The majority of the NIH’s Recover Cohort (the largest studied cohort of people with Long COVID) was vaccinated.
Recent literature reviews put the risk of getting long COVID at about 10% for vaccinated people and 12% for unvaccinated. So definitely it helps, but it really isn’t a miracle. And the studies showing vaccines had a therapeutic effect on long COVID itself failed replication.
Great. Send the link. Why it’s important, now more than ever, to fact check on the internet
10%/12% compared to what? those are just noise without the reference point. are we talking hospitalized cases? etc? those are already significantly reduced once you get the vaccine vs not vaxed.
if the reference point is after you already have an extremely severe case of covid then no shit it doesnt help by then your body is flooded with the virus. by the time that happens your immune system is already overwhelmed and of course being vaxxed isnt going to help in that scenario the payload in the environment is too high its going to do what its going to do.
Vaccines reduce the chance of a virus from reaching overwhelming loads within the body, if the virus manages to do it anyways then all vaccines do is help speed up the recovery at the point. they don’t prevent the damage that can be caused once you hit high loads. they can reduce the severity of the damage by having the loads drop faster but not prevent, at the point you hit high viral loads your stuck with dumb luck for your outcome.
vaccination only slightly reduces chances of long COVID
Uh huh.
Got some data to back that?
I guess I should have been more specific. People who actively choose not to get vaccinated, and get terribly ill as a direct result of their delusional thinking, can blame themselves.
If you took all the sensible precautions, like getting vaccinated, but ended up with long covid regardless, that’s not your fault. You did what you could, but some times even that isn’t enough.
Look, I know this isn’t exactly the most appropriate community to post a comment like this. I do however need to say as someone that has had debilitating brain fog for a couple of years thanks to covid: “…fuck.”
It sucks but the recovery is still possible. I imagine gaslighting and not taking it seriously by people is debilitating.
When you suffer a brain injury from a stroke everyone will be supportive and offer help but when it is long covid people will be like “what? you are probably imagining things” both aliments are recoverable but it must suck to be constantly denied and not treated seriously
You’re fine, it’s anecdotal but perspectives are still nice to see sometimes. Quite a few people around me had the same issue, a few died. (Yes, they had refused the vaccine)
So, question, will this affect covid deniers since they were already pretty dull to start?
I need to get my booster
