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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  • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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    8 days ago

    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.

    • Zero22xx@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      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.

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      These people are addicted to this feeling that they have discovered some secret that destroys conventional wisdom and sheds a whole new light on everything. They are addicted to this feeling that they’ve found a big lie everyone’s swallowed and they’re going to spit it out.

      Every part of their worldview has to have that quality or they can’t hold onto it with their brains. There’s a great deal of straightforward, plain-as-day information that’s totally missing from their worldview because it doesn’t contain the drug their brain is addicted to.

    • MolecularCactus1324@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      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.

    • Klear@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      A very bad cold or flu can totally damage your body and is how lots of older folks go unfortunately.

      That was my view of COVID at the early stages of the pandemic. A lot of people were saying that it’s just a bad flu. I thought it being a bad flu is terrifying.

      An even so, having caught the damn thing three times now even through vaccines, I think my view back then was overly optimistic.