What COVID-19 Does to the Body (Eighth Edition, June 2025)

Your Regular COVID-19 Research Update (90+ Studies)

We’re now several months into the Trump Administration’s censorship of scientists researching COVID-19, and the world is still learning of the impacts of the SARS-CoV-2 virus on the human body, a journey of discovery which may continue for the rest of our lives. While economist Jay Bhattacharya renders the National Institutes of Health into a wholly irrelevant joke to host another worthless podcast, the rest of the world is hard at work bettering our understanding of COVID-19 and getting ever closer to finding treatments for Long COVID.

While millions of Americans disabled by COVID-19 have been abandoned by their government and will continue to suffer as federal public health agencies have been corrupted into a rogue entity, this will continue to be the public health crisis of our lifetimes. Here at the Pandemic Accountability Index, we’ll do everything possible to keep you informed. The PAI is supported entirely thanks to readers like you.

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While leading medical journals have come under attack from the Trump Administration, some are still bravely publishing their research. For this 8th edition, the biggest developments are around COVID-19’s impacts on children, the brain, and Long COVID. This furthers the need for major policy shifts to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks - especially in schools.

Previous edition can be found here:

What COVID-19 Does To The Body (Seventh Edition, March 2025)

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Children & COVID-19

Long COVID in Young Children, School-Aged Children, and Teens

• Characterizing Long COVID Symptoms During Early Childhood (JAMA Pediatrics)

• Children with Post COVID-19 Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome Display Unique Pathophysiological Metabolic Phenotypes (Journal of Proteome Research)

• “a significant association between diagnosed COVID-19 and self-harming behaviors in children and adolescents.” (Annals of Medicine)

• “Greater than one-fifth of NZ children reported persisting symptoms after Covid-19 infection. Post-Covid-19 symptoms impacted the quality of children's day-to-day lives.” (Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health)

• “Prenatal SARS-COV-2 infection in pregnant women is linked to developmental delays in toddlers” (Nature Pediatric Research)

• Pediatric Gastrointestinal Tract Outcomes During the Postacute Phase of COVID-19 (JAMA Network Open)

• Pediatric long COVID: relationships with premorbid history of anxiety or depression and health-related quality of life (Journal of Pediatric Psychology)

• “…those infected with SARS-CoV-2 exhibited increased risks for a range of post-acute cardiovascular outcomes” (Nature Communications)

• SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Childhood Islet Autoimmunity (JAMA Pediatrics)

• Multimodal MRI analysis of COVID-19 effects on pediatric brain (Nature Scientific Reports)

• Characteristic immune cell interactions in livers of children with acute hepatitis revealed by spatial single-cell analysis identify a possible postacute sequel of COVID-19 (Hepatology)

Cognitive & Neurological Impairment (Brain)

• “…the brainstem is a site of vulnerability to long-term effects of COVID-19” (Brain)

• “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)

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

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

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

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

• COVID-19 may Enduringly Impact Cognitive Performance and Brain Haemodynamics in Undergraduate Students (Brain, Behavior, and Immunity)

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

• Driving under viral impairment: Linking acute SARS-CoV-2 infections to elevated car crash risks (PLOS Global Health)

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

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

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

• Reorganization of brain connectivity in post-COVID condition (EJNMMI Research)

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

• Cognitive Sequelae of COVID-19: Mechanistic Insights and Therapeutic Approaches (CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics)

Eyes, Ears, and Nose

• COVID And The Eye: What We’ve Learned 5 Years Since The Start of The Pandemic (Pulmonology Advisor)

• The influence of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein exposure on retinal development in the human retinal organoids (Cell & Bioscience)

• The nasal microbiome modulates risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection (eBioMedicine)

Heart, Lungs, and Cardiovascular Health

Mount Sinai

• Disease entity impacts muscle wasting in the ICU with COVID-19 patients losing muscle nearly twice as fast (Nature Scientific Reports)

• Exercise-induced Changes in Microclotting and Cytokine Levels Point to Vascular Injury and Inflammation in People with Long COVID (Research Square)

• Long-term clinical outcome and exercise capacity in SARS-CoV-2-positive elite athletes (German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research)

• SARS-CoV-2 damages cardiomyocyte mitochondria and implicates long COVID-associated cardiovascular manifestations (Journal of Advanced Research)

• Distinct type 1 immune networks underlie the severity of restrictive lung disease after COVID-19 (Nature Immunology)

• Chest computed tomography and plain radiographs demonstrate vascular distribution and characteristics in COVID-19 lung disease – a pulmonary vasculopathy (Ulster Medical Journal)

Immune System & Cancer

• The SARS-CoV-2 trigger highlights host interleukin 1 genetics in Epstein-Barr virus reactivation (Cell Reports)

• SARS-CoV-2 nsp15 enhances viral virulence by subverting host antiviral defenses (PNAS)

• Evidence Suggesting Immune Damage (Michael Olesen)

• SARS-CoV-2 induces neutrophil degranulation and differentiation into myeloid-derived suppressor cells associated with severe COVID-19 (Science Translational Medicine)

• Depletion and Dysfunction of Dendritic Cells: Understanding SARS-CoV-2 Infection (Frontiers in Immunology)

• “…people with COVID-19 who did not require admission to hospital during the acute phase of infection had increased test positivity rates for bacterial infections…and viral diseases.” (The Lancet Infectious Diseases)

• “…severe COVID-19 can disrupt peroxisomes in macrophages, an immune cell type specialized in engulfing cellular debris and pathogens.” (Science)

Livers, Kidneys, and the Gut

• “SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with a higher risk of adverse postacute kidney outcomes” (JAMA Network Open)

• “Vaccinated patients with a COVID-19 infection and AKI had an increase overall survival” (Kidney Medicine)

• New Onset of Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes Post-COVID-19 Infection: A Systematic Review (Emerging Microbes & Infections)

• Association between COVID-19 and the development of chronic kidney disease in patients (Nature Scientific Reports)

Long COVID & Disability

CrunchME

• Long COVID clinical evaluation, research and impact on society: a global expert consensus (Annals of Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobials)

• Neuroimmune pathophysiology of long COVID (Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences)

• “Long coronavirus disease (COVID), which affects an estimated 44.69–48.04 million people in the United States” (Journal of Infectious Diseases)

• Long COVID Is Not a Functional Neurologic Disorder (Journal of Personalized Medicine)

• “…an interpretable transformer model that achieves 97.06% accuracy in classifying ME/CFS and Long COVID using blood DNA methylation data” (bioRxiv)

• “Nasal epithelium in LC exhibits persistent inflammatory states.” (Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology)

• Long COVID Incidence Proportion in Adults and Children Between 2020 and 2024 (Clinical Infectious Diseases)

• Long-Term Sequelae of COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Symptoms 3 Years Post-SARS-CoV-2 Infection (Journal of Medical Virology)

• Prevalence and severity of neurologic symptoms in Long-COVID and the role of pre-existing conditions, hospitalization, and mental health (Frontiers in Neurology)

• Long COVID clinical evaluation, research and impact on society: a global expert consensus (Annals of Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobials)

• Work Productivity Loss in People Living with Long COVID Symptoms over 2 years from Infection (Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine)

• Prevalence of Persistent Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Abnormalities on PET/MRI and DECT Imaging in Long COVID Patients (Journal of Nuclear Medicine)

• Skeletal muscle properties in long COVID and ME/CFS differ from those induced by bed rest (medRxiv)

• Incidence and Prevalence of Post-COVID-19 Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (Journal of General Internal Medicine)

• Multicentre retrospective detection of nailfold videocapillaroscopy abnormalities in long covid patients (Rhematic & Musculoskeletal Diseases)

• The experience of Black Americans with long COVID (Journal of Clinical Nursing)

• Persistent neurocognitive deficits in long COVID: Evidence of structural changes and network abnormalities following mild infection (Cortex)

• “…prevalence of long COVID among HCWs who had SARS-CoV-2 infection was 40%” (BMJ Public Health)

• Long-COVID Postural Tachycardia Syndrome: A deep phenotyping study (medRxiv)

• Identification of soluble biomarkers that associate with distinct manifestations of long COVID (Nature Immunology)

• “Nearly one in seven adults (~35 million) and working-aged adults (~30 million) reported having a history of long COVID by late 2022 and late 2023” Nature Communications Medicine)

• Brainstem Reduction and Deformation in the 4th Ventricle Cerebellar Peduncles in Long COVID Patients: Insights into Neuroinflammatory Sequelae and “Broken Bridge Syndrome” (medRxiv)

Overall Mortality

Associations of epigenetic aging and COVID- 19: A 3-year longitudinal study

• “COVID-infected patients were more prone to serious illnesses such as heart attack, cancer, and others due to weak immune systems” (Critical Illness Insurance Market)

• Beyond breathing: How COVID-19 affects your heart, brain and other organs (American Heart Association)

• Short- and long-term increased risk of all-cause mortality in a tuberculosis cohort attributed to SARS-CoV-2 infection (The Lancet Regional Health Americas)

• “Many health problems persisted up to 3 years post-discharge, with self-reported fatigue and cognitive problems worsening in the third year.” (The Lancet Regional Health Europe)

• “…COVID- 19 accelerates the DNA methylation-based aging rates.” (GeroScience)

• “…COVID-19 is associated with an increased risk of cardio-cerebral vascular diseases…neuropsychiatric disorders, including optic nerve disorders, epilepsy, schizophrenia, generalized anxiety disorder, stroke, myocardial infarction” (medRxiv)

Pregnancy

• Trimester of maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection differentially predicts newborn size in the COVID-19 Mother Baby Outcomes (COMBO) cohort (Pediatric Research)

• COVID-19 infection history as a risk factor for early pregnancy loss (BMC Medicine)

• “COVID-19 Vaccination is recommended for pregnant women to mitigate adverse neonatal and maternal outcomes.” (BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth)

Reinfections of COVID-19

• Reinfection with SARS-CoV-2 in the Omicron Era is Associated with Increased Risk of Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection (medRxiv)

Reproductive Health

Female reproductive health impacts of Long COVID and associated illnesses including ME/CFS, POTS, and connective tissue disorders

• SARS-COV-2 Persistence in Semen as a Window to Study Long COVID (Journal of Urology)

• COVID-19 infection was associated with poor sperm quality (Nature Scientific Reports)

• Structural and Hormonal Changes in Reproductive-Age Women Post-COVID-19 (Diagnostics)

• Female reproductive health impacts of Long COVID and associated illnesses including ME/CFS, POTS, and connective tissue disorders (Frontiers in Rehabilitation)

COVID-19 Prevention, Transmission, and Treatment

The Sick Times

• Airborne Fungal Spores May Help Predict COVID-19 & Flu Surges (American Society for Microbiology)

• Evidence from whole genome sequencing of aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2 almost 5 hours after hospital room turnover (American Journal of Infection Control)

• Public Health Action Network Delivers Over 15,000 Essential COVID Protections (Associated Press)

• Medical masks versus N95 respirators for preventing COVID-19 among health care workers: A secondary analysis of findings inconsistent with prior understanding reflects the expected inferiority of medical masks. (MetaArXiv Preprints)

• Photobiomodulation in the management of persistent olfactory and gustatory dysfunction post-COVID-19: (Lasers in Medical Science)

• Live attenuated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine OTS-228 demonstrates efficacy, safety, and stability in preclinical model (NPJ Vaccines)

• Wastewater Measures of SARS-CoV-2 Accurately Predict Frequency of Symptomatic Infections in the Community (Journal of Infectious Diseases)

• “…air cleaners using TiO₂-UV light technology can reduce up to 98,1 % of viral load in the air of a COVID patient room” (Journal of Aerosol Science)

• Discovery of an Antiviral PROTAC Targeting the SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Using an Allosteric Warhead (bioRxiv)

• Measuring the fitted filtration efficiency of cloth masks, medical masks and respirators (PLOS One)

• “For every 10% increase in the percentage of observed individuals who were fully masked, the odds of detecting SARS-CoV-2 in school wastewater decreased by nearly 10%.” (American Journal of Public Health)

• It won’t end with COVID: Countering the next phase of American antivaccine activism 2025–29 (PLOS Global Public Health)

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While there’s been a massive political push to force the public to see and talk about COVID-19 solely in the past-tense, it’s clear that for millions worldwide the SARS-CoV-2 remains a serious threat to our health. We at the Pandemic Accountability Index will continue to do our best to keep you updated on the latest research regarding COVID-19’s impacts and potential new treatments & prevention methods.

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