Science Findings: "Severe COVID-19 can itself damage the brain"

 For those who are hesitant to get a COVID Vaccine, maybe this will make you think again (while you still CAN think clearly). In addition to destroying your lungs and other organs, scientists have learned that it can damage your brain, too, causing impairments and lessening your ability to function and think clearly. The report concludes trouble thinking, concentrating, and remembering can be among the most debilitating “long-haul” symptoms and can persist for months.  Here's a recent article from Science News:

(Image Credit: NHK)

COVID-19 ‘brain fog’ inspires search for causes and treatments

By Kelly ServickApr. 27, 2021 , 2:40 PM Science Mag.ORG

Severe COVID-19 can itself damage the brain during its acute phase. SARS-CoV-2 may rarely invade brain tissue directly; most neurological damage is thought to stem from the indirect effects of infection, such as inflammation, stroke, and lack of oxygen.

Faith Gunning, a neuropsychologist at Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) and colleagues reported in February 2021 that of 57 recovering COVID-19 patients referred for neuropsychological evaluation before hospital discharge, 81% had cognitive impairment.

Most experienced problems with attention and executive function, which includes skills like planning, organization, and multitasking.

And such symptoms aren’t limited to people who wound up hospitalized.

The majority of people visiting post–COVID-19 outpatient clinics had a relatively mild acute phase of illness, says Igor Koralnik, a neurologist at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. He oversees the Neuro COVID-19 Clinic at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, which has seen more than 400 patients since it opened in May 2020. Among the first 100 patients with confirmed COVID-19 infections whose symptoms lasted at least 6 weeks, 81 experienced “brain fog,” the most common neurologic symptom, Koralnik’s team reported last month in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology.

READ THIS WOMAN'S STORY: Since she fell ill with COVID-19 around Thanksgiving 2020 Pamela Furr has been waiting for her old self to return. It's now April 2021. A radio news anchor in Tennessee for more than 10 years, she now sometimes finds herself stuck midsentence grasping for simple words; she is prone to forget events and conversations if she doesn’t write them down. “I’m not the same person that I was before COVID,” she says. “I kind of miss me.”

BOTTOM LINE: Avoid getting COVID by getting vaccinated.

“Even if it’s a fairly small percentage [of survivors] who report cognitive problems, the number of overall people in that category … represents a tremendous problem,” says James Jackson, a clinical psychologist at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine’s ICU Recovery Center, where Furr will participate in a support group for COVID-19 long haulers.

Science’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation.

SOURCE: SCIENCE MAGAZINE: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/04/covid-19-brain-fog-inspires-search-causes-and-treatments?utm_campaign=news_daily_2021-04-28&et_rid=79882128&et_cid=3754815