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.