I tell anti-vaxers/covidiots “death is not the only negative outcome” so many times that it autofills on my phone starting with the first word. Here are the Twitter bookmarks I saved on what we’ve learned so far on how covid19 damages the brain. I’m sure there’s more. Let me know if I missed anything good. This is just what I’ve saved on the doomed bird site.

An overview of some known effects: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/covid-19-can-cause-brain-shrinkage-memory-loss-study-2022-03-08/

Even without infecting the brain, covid damages it: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19-damages-brain-without-infecting-it-study-suggests

Even without being a bad case of covid, covid damages the brain: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/long-covid-even-mild-covid-linked-damage-brain-months-infection-rcna18959

Some covid survivors’ brains exhibit Alzheimer’s-like characteristics: https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/alz.12558

A few of the ways covid affects the brain, including strokes caused by clots: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/12/16/1064594686/how-covid-threatens-the-brain

Covid strokes could be more disabling than other kinds of strokes: https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2022/02/09/stroke-COVID-19/2561644417866/

Covid strokes also affect younger people: https://www.jefferson.edu/about/news-and-events/2022/03/study-confirms-stroke-risk-in-younger-covid19-patients.html The largest study on severe stroke and COVID-19 published to date found even moderate COVID-19 infection increased risk of death in younger, healthier stroke patients.

We saw covid increasing risk of strokes in young adults early on, too. This is from 2020: https://www.thelancet.com/article/S1474-4422(20)30272-6/fulltext

Lots of neurological impairments are measurable after covid infection: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/article-abstract/2785388

This article addresses both short-term and long-term neurological effects of covid: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41582-021-00593-7 I’ll repeat it in my post about Long Covid.

The brain is a complex organ that we don’t entirely understand yet. There are many functions we don’t understand, and processes that can’t be measured. Despite claims about neuroplasticity giving the brain the ability to heal itself, we also know that that’s not true in most cases of damage. Neurons don’t reproduce, and because not all broken pathways can re-route, some neurological damage will not only not improve, but will worsen or cause further damage by interrupting communication. Given what we do know about brain injury, especially delayed onset injury from viral infections, it’s quite possible that we will see young people disabled by neurodegenerative conditions caused by covid in the next decade, at least. Messing up your brain is not worth it. Get vaccinated. Wear a good quality mask. Avoid crowds, especially indoors. Don’t risk it.

More bookmarked links. again, I’ll try to be organized, but that’s not easy for me!

One of my favorite links on why this isn’t true, because it’s a video for anti-vaxers who don’t read: https://youtu.be/eAdanPfQdCA

An article outlining much of the same: https://www.wired.com/story/the-physics-of-the-n95-face-mask/

h/t to Leo Lam: https://www.epa.gov/sciencematters/epa-researchers-test-effectiveness-face-masks-disinfection-methods-against-covid-19

Face masks for children do more good than harm: https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/COVID-19/Pages/Cloth-Face-Coverings-for-Children-During-COVID-19.aspx

The CDC on masks: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/masking-science-sars-cov2.html

Masks don’t block oxygen: https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/n95-face-mask-limit-breathe-oxygen/

A few from Dr. Ian MacKay’s Twitter thread on masks before Twitter gets exploded…

N-95s and air filtration: https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/226/2/199/6582941?login=false

How much protection you get from different types of masks: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/commentary-what-can-masks-do-part-1-science-behind-covid-19-protection

Any mask is better than no mask: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2110117118

And another h/t to John E. Canuck, who filled a thread with good information that shouldn’t disappear just because Twitter does…

JAMA article on mask-wearing to control community spread of covid: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2776536

Universal masking reduced covid cases in health care workers: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2768533

Systematic review/meta-analysis on effectiveness of masking and other measures: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31142-9/fulltext

Another review: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2014564118

Masking cuts infection rates in half: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2789302

Even surgical masks help: https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2021/09/surgical-masks-covid-19.html

Again, any mask is better than nothing: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02786826.2022.2053656

Lifting masking requirements in schools + more covid: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2211029

Masks in schools prevent spread outside of schools, too: https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/149/6/e2022056687/185379/School-Masking-Policies-and-Secondary-SARS-CoV-2?autologincheck=redirected?nfToken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

School masking helped prevent Delta cases: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/mandatory-masking-schools-reduced-covid-19-cases

Yep, masks in schools still reduce transmission: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/13511

So we have a lot of evidence debunking the claim in the title. I hope this is enough, but there will probably never be enough to satisfy the covidiots. Keep yourselves and your loved ones safe.