ANSWERED: Does COVID-19 Harm the Brain?

A Collection of Medical Research (60 Studies)

Navy Medicine

Back in 2020, many voices on cable news and in the media openly called for the mass infection of an unvaccinated population, including children, with a brand new SARS virus. Knowing very little about this new virus, they proclaimed that there was nothing more to understand. This was an absurd act of arrogance that kept nobody out of the hospital.

Five years later, the bold proclamations of the pestilence sycophants that COVID-19 would merely pass through one lung and out the other like the common cold did not come to pass. Across young people’s social media, memes such as “the lion does not concern himself with his memory loss, brain fog, and cognitive decline” have become commonplace. As years of medical research has shown in the past five years, COVID-19 is a vascular, multi-system disease which crosses the blood-brain barrier, and can cause serious issues such as cognitive and neurological impairment.

Vinay Prasad is now at the FDA denying your children lifesaving vaccines.

Instead of acknowledging their error, many who championed letting COVID-19 infect children repeatedly instead attacked the researchers with childish insults such as “Covidian.” These were never serious, responsible thinkers, but instead cheerleaders for a new SARS virus they refuse to learn anything about. Now infesting our federal government, their decision-making prioritizes feelings over facts.

Hopefully, this compilation of peer-reviewed medical research from scientists and doctors around the world who have actual credentials & real-world experience will finally put an end to this obscene charade.

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General Overview

• SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with long-lasting neurological symptoms (Cell Host & Microbe)

• “COVID-19 patients tend to have smaller brain volumes than healthy controls.” (NeuroImage)

• “COVID can damage the brain in many ways…inflammation of the brain…onset of new psychological disorders such as severe depression or anxiety…psychotic…damages the brain’s autonomic nervous system.” (Harvard Health Publishing)

• “One out of four mild COVID-19 subjects reported persistent deficits in higher cognitive functions like concentration, memory, visuospatial and visuoconstructive abilities” (Nature Translational Psychiatry)

• COVID leaves brain injury markers in blood (Nature)

• SARS-CoV-2 infection as a cause of neurodegeneration (The Lancet Neurology)

• Brain abnormalities in survivors of COVID-19 after 2-year recovery: a functional MRI study (The Lancet Regional Health West Pacific)

• “…the SARS-CoV-2 virus has a negative effect on brain function” (Brain Sciences)

• “Persisting neurological symptoms after COVID-19 affect up to 10% of patients and can manifest in fatigue and cognitive complaints.” (Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology)

• “The pediatric population…has presented with significant neurological manifestations that raise concerns about the short & long-term effects of COVID-19 on the developing nervous system” (Nature Pediatric Research)

• The Effects of Covid-19 “brain Fog” on Electrophysiological Measures of Attention and Working Memory (Research Square)

• Persistent neuropsychological deficits in recovered COVID-19 patients (Applied Neuropsychology)

• Cognitive Slowing, Dysfunction in Verbal Working Memory, Divided Attention and Response Inhibition in Post COVID-19 Condition in Young Adults (Life)

Alzheimer’s & Dementia

• “…people with COVID-19 were at significantly increased risk for new diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease within 360 days after the initial COVID-19 diagnosis…” (HMS Public Access)

• “Clinical data also support the notion that Alzheimer’s disease can be initiated or deteriorated in COVID-19 patients.” (Acta Neurologica Belgica)

• Temporal Association between COVID-19 Infection and Subsequent New-Onset Dementia in Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (SSRN)

• Alzheimer Disease Patients Who Survived COVID-19 Have Rapid Disease Progression and a Higher Risk of Death at 5-year Follow-up (Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders)

• Rapid Progression of Dementia Following COVID-19 (NIH)

• COVID survivors may develop dementia (Nature India)

• “SARS-CoV-2…may increase the risk of future Alzheimer’s disease.” (Nature Medicine)

• Shared Mechanisms of Blood-Brain Barrier Dysfunction and Neuroinflammation in Coronavirus Disease 2019 and Alzheimer Disease (American Journal of Pathology)

Blood-Brain Barrier

• Blood–brain barrier disruption and sustained systemic inflammation in individuals with long COVID-associated cognitive impairment (Nature Neuroscience)

• Blood Markers Show Neural Consequences of LongCOVID-19 (Cells, MDPI)

• “Breaks in small blood vessels have caused bleeding in the brain (so-called microbleeds) in some people with COVID-19 infection.” (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)

Cognitive Impairment

• “Infection with SARS-CoV-2 during the first year of the pandemic was associated with three to five times higher odds of cognitive impairment 2 years after infection.” (Nature Scientific Reports)

• Cognition and Memory after Covid-19 in a Large Community Sample (New England Journal of Medicine)

• Older adults suffer from persistent cognitive impairment after recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection (News Medical Life Sciences)

• Long Covid and Impaired Cognition — More Evidence and More Work to Do (New England Journal of Medicine)

• “…evidence of pervasive global cognitive impairment, associated with persistently raised brain injury markers, depression symptomatology, and reduced anterior cingulate cortex volume.” (Research Square)

• “…in the relatively young cohort in the present study, a substantial proportion exhibited cognitive dysfunction several months after recovering” (JAMA Network Open)

• Clinical and CSF single-cell profiling of post-COVID-19 cognitive impairment (Cell Reports Medicine)

• “Posthospitalization COVID-19 cognitive deficits at 1 year are global and associated with elevated brain injury markers and gray matter volume reduction” (Nature Medicine)

• Changes in memory and cognition during the SARS-CoV-2 human challenge study (The Lancet eClinicalMedicine)

• A Gene Cluster of Mitochondrial Complexes Contributes to the Cognitive Decline of COVID-19 Infection (Molecular Neurobiology)

• Post-COVID microvascular dysfunction in hospitalized COVID-19 survivors is associated with acute disease severity and persistent cognitive complaints (Journal of the Neurological Sciences)

• “COVID-19 has been linked to acute and long-term cognitive impairments, including memory and concentration deficits, as well as neuropsychiatric symptoms such as anxiety and depression.” (Nature Scientific Reports)

Inflammation

• “…it is well-known that COVID-19 causes systemic inflammation and brain neuro-inflammation” (Brain Sciences MDPI)

• SARS-CoV-2 causes brain inflammation and induces Lewy body formation in macaques (bioRxiv)

• Insights into Neuroinflammatory Sequelae and “Broken Bridge Syndrome” (medRxiv)

Long COVID

• “Psychiatric conditions were the most frequent symptomatology among long COVID signs and symptoms” (Nature Scientific Reports)

• Long COVID is associated with severe cognitive slowing (medRxiv)

• Long Covid and Impaired Cognition — More Evidence and More Work to Do (New England Journal of Medicine)

• “Long COVID is a major health concern because many patients develop chronic neuropsychiatric symptoms…MMP-9 can disrupt neuronal connectivity and be elevated in patients with long COVID.” (Translational Neuroscience)

• “Long COVID symptoms, including cognitive impairments, could potentially impact activities requiring high cognitive function, such as driving.” (Neurology Journals)

• A causal link between autoantibodies and neurological symptoms in long COVID (medRxiv)

• Vaccination prior to SARS-CoV-2 infection does not affect the neurologic manifestations of long COVID (Brain Communications)

• Persistent olfactory dysfunction as an indicator of cognitive impairment in long COVID-19 syndrome (European Archives of Psychiatry & Clinical Neuroscience)

• Long COVID “was associated with reduced cognitive processing speed compared to fully recovered controls with those infected early in the pandemic having greater deficits.” (Infectious Diseases)

• Understanding Neuroinflammation in Post-COVID-19 Syndrome: Biological Mechanisms, Diagnostic Biomarkers, and Therapeutic Prospects (Neuroscience and Neurology)

• Distinct Transcriptomic Biomarkers and Pathways Associated with Cardiovascular and Neurovascular Dysregulation in Long COVID-19 Brain Fog (bioRxiv)

Neurological Issues

• Persistent neuropsychological deficits in recovered COVID-19 patients (Applied Neuropsychology)

• “Lingering neurological manifestations after COVID-19 still pose considerable individual, healthcare system, and socioeconomic repercussions.” (Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases)

• “The risk of neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular…disorders was increased among COVID-19 positive outpatients” (Frontiers Neuroepidemiology)

• Multiple Neuroinvasive Pathways in COVID-19 (Molecular Neurobiology)

Psychiatric Disorders

• “…people who survived the acute phase of COVID-19 were at increased risk of subsequent incident psychiatric disorders and psychotropic prescriptions.” (Nature Human Behavior)

• “…significant prevalence of long-term neuropsychiatric symptoms associated with COVID-19, including fatigue, depression, anxiety, cognitive impairment, sleep disturbances, and headaches.” (BMC Neurology)

• “SARS-CoV-2 Infection is Associated with an Increase in New Diagnoses of Schizophrenia Spectrum and Psychotic Disorder” (medRxiv)

• Long-term risk of psychiatric disorder and psychotropic prescription after SARS-CoV-2 infection among UK general population (Nature Human Behavior)

• “Cognitive and psychiatric symptom trajectories 2–3 years after hospital admission for COVID-19” (The Lancet Psychiatry)

• Chronic post-COVID neuropsychiatric symptoms (PCNPS) persisting beyond one year from being infected during the ‘Omicron wave’ (medRxiv)

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That should finally put to rest the “debate” on whether or not COVID-19 negatively impacts the brain. Hopefully, we will develop better treatments in the future but considering that the pestilence sycophants in charge of the federal public health agencies consider COVID-19 to be merely a “cold,” it’s unlikely this will come from America. For now, it’s still worthwhile to protect yourself from COVID-19.

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