Reply to New Covid study from UK shows brain damage

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Reply to "New Covid study from UK shows brain damage - what do you make of this?"

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[quote=Anonymous]Neuroscientist here. So far I’ve only read the abstract. I’ll have to look for the full text version on a computer in the next few days. Does anyone who has read the full test know whether the participants in this study all experienced hyposmia or anosmia as a result of infection? Like was that a criterion for inclusion in the study? All of the brain areas the researchers looked at are part of the central olfactory pathways. Based on what we know so far omicron does not seem to cause hyposmia or anosmia at the same rate as previous variants. I am not convinced that results from studies using participants infected with earlier variants can be generalized to omicron which may not invade organ systems to the same extent.

My whole family just had Covid and none of us (5 people) experiences more than very temporary hyposmia due to congestion , and certainly none of us experienced anosmia which is very distinct (total absence of smell). I think this is typical for many people who have been infected very recently or will be infected soon. I’m not sure we need to panic as these effects on the brain may be unique to those who experienced olfactory symptoms when infected with Covid.

In general I am not sure anyone can realistically avoid negative neuropsychological effects from this pandemic whether infected or not. Social isolation and loneliness have very real detrimental effects on the brain and on cognition. Perhaps even more so during critical developmental periods. Never mind the stress that is caused by constant uncertainty. None of us are going to come out of this scot free in terms of neurobiological and epigenetic markers. Even if you think you are handling it all just fine — your brain and body know better.

We don’t live in a risk free world. We all bear the marks of living on this planet and have to weigh the costs and benefits of different decisions that can be made at this time. I am not advocating for a “who cares” approach to Covid, by any means. But the reality is that this is going to affect all of us negatively in some way and that different people may make different decisions in light of the evidence. I am not convinced that the potential effects Covid has had on my brain or my children’s brains is necessarily worse than the effects of being out of school and away from peers, not participating in activities, etc for two years.

Being a human being on planet Earth involves risk. We cannot run and hide from all of it. All we can do is mitigate it the best we can and not beat ourselves up if bad things happen anyway.  [/quote]

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