What COVID-19 Does To The Body (Fifth Edition, August 2024)

500+ Studies Later, What Have We Learned?

Luckily, we have the technology to do so. Check the dedicated section at the very bottom of this page!

We started this project, “What COVID-19 Does To the Body,” in the fall of 2022 to further public understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to better understand the virus and disease that many in politics and the media insisted we simply roll over and submit to repeated infections of. In the summer of 2024, the Pandemic Accountability Index has now read and compiled over 500 studies across five editions, divided by category, on how SARS-CoV-2 harms the human body - as well as how to best prevent COVID-19 infections.

What COVID Does To The Body (First Edition, November 2022)

What SARS-CoV-2 Does to the Body (2nd Edition, July 2023)

Since 2022, a number of credentialed professionals across multiple fields have spouted off nonsensical, uninformed opinions that ignore the many well-documented harms that even “mild” (not hospitalized or dead) COVID-19 infections can leave on the body. The public is entitled to informed opinions and public health recommendations supported by a concrete foundation of scientific fact, not fictional delusions.

What SARS-CoV-2 Does to the Body (3rd Edition, December 2023)

What COVID-19 Does To The Body (Fourth Edition, March 2024)

We hope that these compilations of recent research, from credible institutions and researchers across the globe, can be a resource for doctors, nurses, public health officials, and policymakers. This is only possible with your grassroots support, which includes subscribing to the Pandemic Accountability Index and sharing these research compilations widely across social media and to relevant parties in your local community. We would also humbly ask for a one-time donation, or paid subscription, to help support growing the Pandemic Accountability Index.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

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Children & COVID-19

• “89% of children with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection (regardless of severity) met clinical criteria for thrombotic microangiopathy” aka clotting disorder (Ash Blood Advances)

• “…severe neurological complications in pediatric patients with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 occur infrequently but may lead to significant morbidity and mortality…” (Pediatric Neurology)

• Post-Acute Cardiovascular Outcomes of COVID-19 in Children and Adolescents (medRxiv)

• Risk Factors for Pediatric Critical COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society)

• Prevalence and co-occurrence of cognitive impairment in children and young people up to 12-months post infection with SARS-CoV-2 (Omicron variant) (Brain, Behavior, and Immunity)

• COVID-19 mortality declined in 2022 for age groups with high vaccine uptake (3–11 and 12–17 year olds). (Vaccine)

• Post-acute and Chronic Kidney Function Outcomes of COVID-19 in Children and Adolescents: An EHR Cohort Study from the RECOVER Initiative (medRxiv)

• “Endothelial hyperinflammation and vasculitis are known hallmarks of acute COVID-19 and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). They are due to the direct effect of the virus on endothelial cells enhanced by pro-inflammatory modulators and may cause venous/arterial thrombosis.” (Metabolites)

• Circulating Activated Platelets in Children With Long Covid: A Case-Controlled Preliminary Observation (Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal)

Cognitive & Neurological Impairment

From “Brain exposure to SARS-CoV-2 virions perturbs synaptic homeostasis”

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

• “The COVID-19 cohort had varying amounts of acute neutrophilic vasculitis with leukocytoclasia (small blood vessel inflammation -Ed.) in the microcirculation of the brain in all cases” (Diagnostic Pathology)

• Neurofilament light chain and glial fibrillary acid protein levels are elevated in post-mild COVID-19 or asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 cases (Scientific Reports)

• 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)

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

• EEG signatures of cognitive decline after mild SARS-CoV-2 infection: an age-dependent study (BMC Medicine)

• “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)

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

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

• Enhanced replication of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2 in human forebrain and midbrain organoids (Nature Signal Transducton & Targeted Therapy)

Eyes & Ears

• SARS-CoV-2 infects cells lining the blood-retinal barrier and induces a hyperinflammatory immune response in the retina via systemic exposure (PLOS Pathogens)

• Multicenter and multimodal imaging study reveals rare fundus lesions in patients after SARS-CoV-2 infection (Scientific Reports)

• “Incidence of hearing loss following COVID-19 among young adults in South Korea: a nationwide cohort study” (eClinicalMedicine)

• SARS-CoV-2 detection in the middle ear effusion of patients with Otitis media with effusion after omicron infection (American Journal of Otolaryngology)

Heart, Lungs, & Cardiovascular Health

• Predicted risk of heart failure pandemic due to persistent SARS-CoV-2 infection using a three-dimensional cardiac model (iScience)

• A mathematical model to assess the effects of COVID-19 on the cardiocirculatory system (Nature Scientific Reports)

• Lung function and quality of life one year after severe COVID-19 in Brazil (J Bras Pneumol)

• Acute and post-acute respiratory complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection: population-based cohort study in South Korea and Japan (Nature Communications)

• Persistent increase of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events in COVID-19 patients: a 3-year population-based analysis (Cardiovascular Research)

• Cardiac Damage After SARS-CoV2 Infection (Cureus)

• Deep learning reveals lung shape differences on baseline chest CT between mild and severe COVID-19 (Computers in Biology and Medicine)

• A comprehensive review on the association and prevention of long-term COVID-induced heart failure: A review (Medicine)

• Longitudinal analysis of the lung proteome reveals persistent repair months after mild to moderate COVID-19 (Cell Reports Medicine)

• SARS-CoV-2 spike-induced syncytia are senescent and contribute to exacerbated heart failure (PLOS Pathogens)

• SARS-CoV-2 variants divergently infect and damage cardiomyocytes in vitro and in vivo (BMC Cell & Bioscience)

• “Various organs are affected by COVID-19 vasculopathy, including the vasculature of lungs, legs, spleen, heart, and brain.” (Life)

Immune System & Cancer

• “…hybrid immunity has limited impact on future COVID-19 waves with immune-escape variants.” (BMC Infectious Diseases)

• “Individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 had a 15% higher HZ risk than those without COVID-19.” (Open Forum Infectious Diseases)

• Global meta-analysis estimates 43% rate of multidrug resistance in COVID patients (Journal of Infection)

• Sequence similarity between SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid and multiple sclerosis-associated proteins provides insight into viral neuropathogenesis following infection (Scientific Reports)

• “COVID-19 causes long-term reduction of innate and adaptive immune cells which is associated with a Th2 serum cytokine profile.” (European Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology)

• Total plasma N-glycomic signature of SARS-CoV-2 infection (iScience)

• Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome correlation with SARS-CoV-2 N genotypes (Biomedical Journal)

Livers, Kidney, and the Gut

• COVID-19-Induced Diabetes Mellitus: Comprehensive Cellular and Molecular Mechanistic Insights (Pathophysiology)

• Infection with SARS-CoV-2 can cause pancreatic impairment (Signal Transduction & Targeted Therapy)

• The relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection and type 1 diabetes mellitus (Nature Reviews Endocrinology)

• Does COVID-19 Increase the Risk of Subsequent Kidney Diseases More Than Influenza? (medRxiv)

Long COVID & Disability

• “Long COVID (LC) remains common, even after mild acute infection with recent variants and it is likely LC will continue to cause substantial long-term ill health” (Nature Immunology)

• “Long Covid feels like a gun to my head” (STAT News)

• An incomplete picture: understanding the burden of long Covid (Economist Impact)

• The Economic Cost of Long COVID: An Update (Harvard University)

• “The most frequently reported post-COVID-19 symptoms were fatigue (44; 69.8%), cognitive impairment (41; 65.1%), anxiety (33; 52.4%) and depression (25; 39.7%).” (Nature Molecular Psychiatry)

• Chronic viral coinfections differentially affect the likelihood of developing long COVID (Journal of Clinical Investigation)

• Persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in platelets and megakaryocytes in [Long COVID] (Conference of Retroviruses & Opportunistic Infections)

• Over 41% of COVID patients in Palestine report symptoms over next 3 months (Nature Scientific Reports)

• “Individuals who were diagnosed with COVID-19, compared to those not diagnosed, had an overall 37% higher prevalence of severe physical symptom burden” (The Lancet Regional Health Europe)

• Identifying and Mitigating the Public Health Consequences of Meta-Ignorance about "Long COVID" Risks (Ideas)

• Pulmonary rehabilitation in follow-up and inpatient rehabilitation for Long COVID: twelve months of follow-up (European Journal of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine)

• Long COVID: pathophysiological factors and abnormalities of coagulation (Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism)

• Impacts of Long COVID on workers: A longitudinal study of employment exit, work hours and mental health in the UK (PLOS One)

• Systems Modeling Reveals Shared Metabolic Dysregulation and Novel Therapeutic Treatments in ME/CFS and Long COVID (biorxiv)

• “You may now become who you thought was disposable”: COVID-19 Politics and Ableism (Journal of American Folklore)

• Work ability and return-to-work of patients with post-COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis (BMC Public Health)

• Relationship between acute SARS-CoV-2 viral clearance with Long COVID Symptoms: a cohort study (medRxiv)

• Long Covid severely effects 1/4 of patients (Denis Naughten)

• Review of organ damage from COVID and Long COVID (De Gruyter)

• Enough already: T cell inflammation and SARS-CoV-2 virus persist in Long Covid (Science Immunology)

• Internal tremors and vibrations in long COVID: a cross-sectional study (American Journal of Medicine)

• Understanding Long COVID’s Impact on the Workforce (Moderna)

• Osteonecrosis as a manifestation of Long-COVID Syndrome: a systematic review (Musculoskeletal Surgery)

• “Out of 165 patients, 139 (84%) reported symptoms at the 1-year follow-up, while only 101 (61%) reported symptoms at the 2-year follow-up.” (PLOS One)

• Long COVID: cognitive, balance, and retina manifestations (Frontiers)

• A Long COVID Definition: A Chronic, Systemic Disease State with Profound Consequences (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine)

• Psychological factors associated with Long COVID: a systematic review and meta-analysis (eClinicalMedicine)

Overall Mortality

• “However, analysis of COVID-19 (n = 15) showed a majority of articles approved of refusal to provide care, significantly more than other diseases” (Clinical Infectious Diseases)

• Three-year outcomes of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (Nature Medicine)

• “Almost one in 10 patients who caught COVID in hospital died” (ABC News)

• Too Many Deaths, Too Many Left Behind: A People's External Review of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's COVID-19 Pandemic Response (Policy Analysis)

• Labor, Retail & Service Workers Experienced 68% of Deaths in First Year of Pandemic (International Journal of Environmental Research & Public Health)

• “Cannabis use tied to increased risk of severe COVID-19” (JAMA Network Open)

• “Post-COVID conditions contributed to a substantial number of deaths in Italy.” (Frontiers)

Pregnancy

“(A) Strong signal for the positive strand staining of SARS-CoV-2 S gene in infected placenta by RNAscope. (B) Signal for the the SARS-CoV-2 orf1ab negative-strand staining indicating active viral replication”

• Vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2 delta-variant in a preterm infant (BMC Infectious Diseases)

• Neurodevelopmental delay in children exposed to maternal SARS-CoV-2 in-utero (Nature Scientific Reports)

• COVID-19 Infection During Pregnancy and Hearing Loss in Infants (Indian Journal of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery)

• “COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy was not associated with an increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes” (Obstetrics & Gynecology)

Reinfections of COVID-19

• What doctors wish patients knew about COVID-19 reinfection (American Medical Association)

• “…overall effectiveness of previous infection in preventing reinfection with JN.1 was estimated at only 1.8%” (medRxiv)

• “…the median self-reported time to recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection was 20 days, and an estimated 22.5% had not recovered by 90 days.” (JAMA Network)

• Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Reinfection Rates in Malawi: A Possible Tool to Guide Vaccine Prioritisation and Immunisation Policies (MDPI)

Reproductive Health

• “Although severe acute syndrome coronavirus 2 was not present in the infected men's semen, it was intracellularly present in the spermatozoa till 3 months after hospital discharge.” (Wiley Online Library)

• Semen proteomics reveals alterations in fertility-related proteins post-recovery from COVID-19 (Frontiers)

Viral Persistence

• Tissue-based T cell activation and viral RNA persist for up to 2 years after SARS-CoV-2 infection (Science Translational Medicine)

• Blood transcriptomic analyses reveal persistent SARS-CoV-2 RNA and candidate biomarkers in post-COVID-19 condition (The Lancet - Microbe)

• Persistent SARS-CoV-2 infection: significance and implications (The Lancet - Infectious Diseases)

• “…strong evidence that SARS-CoV-2, in some form or location, persists for up to 14 months following acute SARS-CoV-2 infection.” (The Lancet - Infectious Diseases)

• Identification of SARS-CoV-2 Persistent Intestinal Epithelial Syndrome (SPIES) as a Novel Disease Entity (medRxiv)

COVID-19 Prevention & Transmission

From “Effect of wearing N95 facemasks on the mode of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the indoor environment of a hospital”

• “….There are, in fact, places that have installed all of these: fresh air, filtering, and germicidal UV lights…The White House, Congress, Number 10 Downing, Parliament, the Reichstag, and WHO. All of our leaders have these protections and procedures in place. (Institute for New Economic Thinking)

• Masks and respirators for prevention of respiratory infections: a state of the science review (Clinical Microbiology Reviews)

• “All masks and respirators significantly reduced exhaled viral load, without fit tests or training.” (eBioMedicine)

• Ambient carbon dioxide concentration correlates with SARS-CoV-2 aerostability and infection risk (Nature Communications)

• Proactive vaccination using multiviral Quartet Nanocages to elicit broad anti-coronavirus responses (Nature Nanotechnology)

• Examples of UR-GUV Installations (Harvard)

• N-protein vaccine Convacell® is effective against COVID-19: phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial (medRxiv)

• Survey data yields improved estimates of test-confirmed COVID-19 cases when rapid at-home tests were massively distributed in the United States (medRxiv)

• Elevated carbon dioxide lets Sars-CoV-2 live far longer in droplets (Chemistry World)

• Impact of interventions to reduce nosocomial transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in English NHS Trusts: a computational modelling study (BMC Infectious Diseases)

• Predicting airborne coronavirus inactivation by far-UVC in populated rooms using a high-fidelity coupled radiation-CFD model (Scientific Reports)

• The Risk of Aircraft-Acquired SARS-CoV-2 Transmission during Commercial Flights: A Systematic Review (MDPI)

• The 2003 SARS outbreak and its impact on infection control practices (Public Health)

• "Older versions of COVID-19 vaccines offered little, if any, additional protection compared with being unvaccinated, including against COVID-19 hospital admissions, regardless of the number or type of prior doses received." (JAMA Internal Medicine)

• A COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Test Employing Upconversion Nanoparticles (bioRxiv)

• Self-injury, suicidality and eating disorder symptoms in young adults following COVID-19 lockdowns in Denmark (Nature Human Behavior)

• Functionalized N95 Face Mask with a Chemical-Free Paper-Based Collector for Exhaled Breath Analysis: SARS-CoV-2 Detection with a Printed Immunosensor as a Case Study (ACS Publications)

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In conclusion, we find that the disease COVID-19 is clearly not merely “respiratory” in nature, and nor is it a “cold,” as repeatedly claimed by numerous anti-vaccine grifters. The result of repeatedly infecting the population, especially the pediatric population, with the ever-evolving SARS-CoV-2 virus, will undoubtedly have disastrous results for public health going forward. Rejecting false binaries that immediate death is the only relevant metric for tracking whether or not we are still in the COVID-19 pandemic will be a key first step in setting policy moving forward, focusing on prevention instead of saturation.

In closing, the Pandemic Accountability Index would like to thank all of the subscribers, paid or otherwise, and anyone who has shared this crucial series of compiling the latest scientific research around SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. If you would like to support our work in the future, please consider a paid subscription via Substack, or a one-time donation via Ko-Fi or Paypal.