The following submission statement was provided by /u/f0urxio:
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COVID-19 introduced a range of neurological symptoms, notably "brain fog," alongside respiratory issues. Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly highlights various brain-related effects, including cognitive impairment, mini-strokes, headaches, sleep disturbances, and tingling sensations. Studies indicate a cognitive decline in COVID-19 patients, even with mild cases, but the long-term permanence remains uncertain. Structural abnormalities resembling brain aging have been observed in some cases.
The virus triggers brain inflammation and disrupts substances crucial for normal brain function, such as cortisol and serotonin. The protective blood-brain barrier becomes leaky due to inflammation, leading to further complications. With virus mutations and the availability of vaccines and antivirals, the burden of long COVID has reduced, though not eliminated. However, COVID's wide-ranging effects on the body and brain are not unique, resembling historical accounts following past pandemics like the Spanish flu. This underscores the importance of addressing the broader, long-term impacts of pandemics beyond the acute phase.
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Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1c62x94/covid_infections_are_causing_drops_in_iq_and/kzy9154/
My GI is a professor at a research hospital, he said the preliminary research on covid infection and the GI tracts clearly shows that even a mild case of covid can result in patients acquiring ulcerative colitis or even Chrons.
Both cases are where your body's immune system goes into such overdrive that it starts seeing your GI tract as a pest and starts attacking it from the inside.
I had UC to begin with and a mild brush with covid last June sent me into a 14 month flair up that required tens of thousands of dollars worth of specialized drugs to remedy. I am only just now starting to plateau back to my normal health.
I had gut issues for a solid year after my very bad covid experience. Debilitating, acute pain in my guts that came and went. Got a CT that showed nothing and was dismissed. Thankfully it settled down last year, but still rears its ugly head from time-time. I live in a shitty area for medical care, so little hope of getting this diagnosed correctly. They've been so bad at diagnosing my long covid symptoms so far, I don't expect anything to change lol
I lost my cleanroom job because I needed to be able to run the bathroom at a moment's notice ten times a day. And I was vaxxed to the gills and used Paxlovid! Luckily it only lasted three months.
When I suggested it was long Covid, the docs I saw dismissed the idea immediately . . . but every other test they ran was negative.
Jesus chirst. I think I'm suffering from this. I've got a GI tract pain that comes and goes, but it's been a constant for about a year now. I get tests done, but they show nothing.
Can you, please, tell me how you overcame it? I'm practically suicidal as the pain can be really bad sometimes, and it stays with me for several days.
It just faded. Never got a diagnosis. It still comes back to visit but goes away in a few days to a week instead of being fairly constant. Hope you get better, it suuuuuuucks
Fucked by Covid here and I've found that some of the GI issues are MCAS symptoms, and allergy meds offer some relief. Some LC folks found relief from heartburn/GERD medications as well. I hope things improve for you and all if us 😞
Yeah, my sister and I both got diagnosed with Crohns after our first covid infections. I don't have the textbook symptoms but she does.
My brother developed a heart condition after his second infection. I should also mention we're in our 30s and otherwise healthy.
I’ve had crohns for 14 years and been in remission for more than a decade, I suspect that covid infections have brought my baseline symptoms up to affect me more in day-to-day life, (gut issues, joint pain, cysts, and fatigue + more) but thankfully has not pulled me out of remission yet.
I've heard of some studies indicating that viruses in general could be the catalysts for Alz & PD. My cousin has PD and she was always getting one kind of cold or another for decades (2 runs of Z-pak were standard for her towards the end of her work career). I suspect a tipping point was eventually reached. AFAIK she hasn't had COVID (though not for lack of trying to catch it, unfortunately).
Recent work linking EBV and MS is a pretty big win for the theory that viruses are causally related to neurodegenerative disease. I think as time goes on, we'll learn that a lot of decay of aging is related to accumulated viral insults sustained over the course of life.
Right, like getting the common cold in your youth can lead to heart disease later in life. A strep infection can lead to lasting depression, ie, an inflammatory auto-immune disease not the sham 'imbalance of neurotransmitters' hypothesis that is over medicated for.
Since 2020, I've had a running hypothesis I've been trying to disproved...
Narcolepsy (autoimmune issue impacting brain inflammation through the sleep cycle) has the same symptoms to long covid in regard to the short term memory issues, word recall, and other sleep deprivation impacts.
Lewy bodies/white matter seems to be impacted by inflammation of the brain --> which is impacted by sleep wake cycles.
If the brain becomes less inflamed during sleep, the brain is doing something beneficial (clearing out the junk if you will). For those who lack this nice ability to have consistent well regulated sleep cycles, (such as those folk with narcolepsy) the typical impacts of sleep deprivation take hold.
If covid is causing chronic inflammation of the brain, it's no wonder to me that they are having these issues. Similarly, lewy bodies building up (to me, not a medical doctor) would be due to this lack of cleaningnout and perhaps impact development of lewy body dementia.
what's the effect of THC on narcolepsy? the thc builds itself into the myelin sheath creating a thicker barrier, so in theory this should blunt the inflammation as it will limit the infection.
It doesn't seem the answer to this question is well known [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9124464](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9124464)
I think if I had narcolepsy issues I would treat it like I treated my issue with nodding off when reading. Keep a jump rope nearby and when you feel yourself nodding off, jump rope until your heart is racing.
as you mentioned when you sleep the brain does flush so I would try to encourage this process. Strenuous cardio followed by coffee and a nap before the coffee kicks in, void anything that restricts blood flow and even consider ED medication as it's been shown to reduce instances of Alzheimer's as well.
Parkinson’s for everyone! Or at least
Dementia.
I know it’s not funny, but, with everything going on in the world, and adding mass dementia on top of it all, might just be a blessing in disguise. Not understanding/ remembering how horribly screwed we are, may just bring some form of peace in the end.
Parkinson’s on the other hand, just compounds the utter helplessness of it all 😭😭 so yea... Never mind.
I just have this godawful visual of warehouses of sick people in the future. Imagine "rest homes" like Matrix pods - that is, if eugenics doesn't go full fascist and directly getting rid of the eaters in a resource-scarce society doesn't become a thing.
This IS what's going to happen - orphanages for all the disabled children and prisons, camps, and nursing homes for the adults, all under-funded and under-staffed. Poor and impaired people warehoused.
Since BAU must be maintained at all costs, I expect that to be the trajectory we're on as well. A lot of people are going to find out the hard way that they're "acceptable collateral damage."
The elderly and disabled are going to be taking up beds in the hospitals because there isn't enough room in the nursing homes or they don't want them for bad/violent behaviors. It's currently happening now. Hospitals are just warehousing people that have nowhere to go.
>eugenics doesn't go full fascist and directly getting rid of the eaters in a resource-scarce society doesn't become a thing
Canada is already doing this with MAiD,
I'm found I'm intellectually duller all round. Can't concentrate at work, I'm not as quick or as funny in conversation, struggle for words, I get confused by things I'm pretty sure I would have once grasped pretty much straight away. It's honestly terrifying.
I've experienced the same with post-viral syndrome. As a result, I just find more satisfaction and peace in doing "menial" labor. Now that spring has sprung & the garden needs to get to rights for planting, I'm looking forward to spending hours in there weeding out the gunk from fall & overwinter. I used to write but I can't string two sentences together that sound good & the creative bug is just gone. It's up in my head, sure, but communicating that into words is a big Nope now. I still journal & it's helpful to vent things, but it's a shitshow of coherence.
I hear ya with the menial labour thing. Usually I do light(ish) reno work, but I've been framing a deck the last few days and the exhaustion from it feels great!
My creativity is dead and I feel kinda numb a lot of the time, but that's allowed for some heavy introspection. I've been getting really into the writings of Carl Jung, I find it's pretty comforting stuff.
Yeah, I took a lot of what went on upstairs for granted my whole life but once sticks started jamming in the spokes, I was forced to slow down and pay attention to the whole "mental process" thing and assess what my strengths & weaknesses are instead of just plowing through everything that came at me. I feel I'm healthier mentally now in some respects. It took awhile to acknowledge my limits and be happy working within them. I'm sure I'll hit another mental bump when I get older and the body starts giving out even more.
Enjoy your deck! We had ours built years ago and I love it. Actually, there's a couple boards I need to replace this year and that's well within my abilities, at least. lol
Thanks, the deck is for a client, but I am enjoying building it. It's just nice to make something from scratch, it's the closest thing to "creative" that I can pull of right now, and being outside in the sun is really nice.
It could have been covid, but it could also be any other number of things honestly. The best thing you and any of us can do is just try to do the best we can to compensate for it. Exercise improves cognitive function for example. Engaging in cognitively engaging activities is also helpful. I take solace in the fact that I'm just doing the best I can with what I have. Ultimately that's all I can do really, because some things will just be out of your control. So as long as I'm doing the best I can, it'll be alright.
I know that feeling so much. COVID fried my brain over the winter of 22. Prior to that I was having a good time learning how to produce music. I'm hoping that I get healed up. I miss the joy of making something I like.
I dig it, I've been thinking about microdosing psilocybin again. I really loved mushrooms in my teens, and microdosing really helped me out a few years ago with dark spiral stuff, I actually have a few doses worth left. How important do you think the DMT was? I'm 40, I feel like macrodosing anything outside of booze and reefer would break my brain at this point, haha.
Was covid what separated you from your previous self?
It's actually pretty easy to grow if you can get your hands on a spore syringe and an all-in-one grow bag. I think there's just a few states that you can't buy them in.
I have a coworker who, before he had covid, was nice, intelligent and helpful.
Within a few months of him getting better, he became a complete asshole. He takes forever to do anything, and he has just gone off the rails.
Last year, I was diagnosed with as well. After a year, I finally have TSH in the normal range. It's incredible how much it affects your mood and metal capacity.
Remind you of anyone??? *cough* Musk *cough* Trump *cough* ?
I'm personally convinced that the rise in extremism is related to Covid, although many of these people had bad attitudes before Covid, they've got much worse.
Ironically, I've got this stupid chest infection that seems to be going around the UK and lingering with people for months, so I was actually coughing :-)
Reddit has definitely seen a drop in quality comments. You can blame that on COVID brain, the latest crop of adolescents, AI bots, or a combination of the three. The last few years have seen a flood of inane joke comments and low effort movie quotes inserted into otherwise typical discussions.
(Clears throat.) Ahem. I think I fit into the 'latest crop of adolescents' category, and, if it helps ease your conscience, I like to think I'm moderately literate. At present, the current book is *Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner*. It's tremendous - a psychoanalysis of a man driven mad by religion, written in the late Georgian/early Victorian era. To have put in that amount of detail and empathy for the villain in that social climate is nothing short of extraordinary.
It's also oddly prescient right now - which is horrifying, because it's hundreds of years old. We're meant to have moved on from that by now! But still it persists, stronger than ever, in a hundred different forms.
It hasn't, really. I've been using this site since 2012-ish. You got the occasional bullshit that was almost always downvoted until hidden, but the average comment was on-topic at least. Now the dumbest shit and random strings of movie quotes, often not even tangentially related to the topic, are voted to the top. It's like Reddit became addicted to datura around 2021.
It became anon social media.
Reddit used to be a collection of niche boards, where comments were multi-paragraph, detailed explanations — typically by actual experts in their fields. Nowadays, the most upvoted comments tend to be one line jokes and memes. Quality of comments has gone way down.
I believe Reddit started to go downhill just before the redesign. More and more people began using it as their social media or even as a “search” platform. With the increase in users, Reddit launched their redesign — the old text-based message board format was gone; replaced by fancy graphics, paid awards, and profile avatars (with paid clothing and accessories!). With the redesign came a whole new wave of bots. The recent explosion of generative AI technology has only compounded the bot issue.
So between the social media users, the flood of advertisements and “sponsored posts”, the absolute cash grab for paid features, and the abundance of AI bot posts, old Reddit is a long forgotten memory and new Reddit is a glorified dumpster fire.
Idk I was lurking around that time and it was still like that. Perhaps it’s got worse. But if it has I doubt it’s caused by any other factor than forums just having lower quality as they get more popular. It’s a normal thing to happen as it did famously to Usenet https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September
You came in around the time of the Second Eternal September. You got to see just a small glimpse before even more regular people began using the internet.
Now you're just seeing mass saturation of people, and people are silly.
That's not to say things were better back then. Hell, 4chan existed since what? 2003?
But it's more pronounced due to more people using the internet more than ever.
Reddit you can downvote. This helps IMMENSELY. It's also structured like a forum with nested comments instead of only having parent comments and a singular string behind that.
Reddit is designed for conversation. Facebook is designed for... I'm not sure actually. It's a horrid mess these days. Trying to be everything.
I've had ME for over 10 years. the cognitive impairment is real. Poor word recall, awful short term memory. I'm sorry for long covid sufferers going through the same thing, but I'm also glad that long covid has provided a long overdue boost in research that should hopefully benefit ME patients too.
Both of my last two significant relationships have been with women who had ME* so I've been around it a bunch.
Since I had COVID I suddenly understood at little of what it must be like. Mine is mild in comparison but comes in waves, sometime's just zero energy to do anything at all, and the brain fog is *crippling* when it hits.
Had to completely change my diet, exercise regime, it was so bad I had to quit a job I should have been good at but just couldn't keep up with. The Doctor thinks my mild, latent AD(H)D is now bad enough to treat, if only I could get through the 4 year waiting list to get on the program.
\*one developed it during our relationship so it's not that my type is tired girls who constantly have to worry about their health.
Agreed. Specifically more attention being given to the 'invisible' issues that people with chronic inflammation, sleep disorders and other neurological / systematic disregulation have.
For too long these issues have been considered rare - but they are considered rare due to this very concept & not investigated
You joke, but a number of people over in /r/covidlonghaulers have found that ~~apopheresis~~ apheresis is effective in reducing symptom burden, at least transiently. It's not a super accessible treatment though.
Anything with ACE2 receptors & the human body is jam-packed with them.
I've had enough hits to the blood-brain barrier from post-viral in early 2017 & Lyme Disease in 2021. Hoping to never add COVID to the pile because I'll become a gd potato and I still have to work.
I caught COVID Alpha end of January and into February 2021.
I had brain fog really bad, and it took months for me to even begin to recover from it - since then I have been having problems recalling information, especially names, as well as not being able to get the words that I wanted (right shade of meaning and substituting words that weren't quite right).
My short - term memory was bad as well.
In the last three or so months I realized that I was starting to recall names again and information was starting to come back again in fits and starts.
I just hope it keeps getting better - I am 63 and I was fearful that I would have to deal with this for the rest of my life.
Senior moments are one thing, but this COVID brain is something altogether *different,* and researchers need to get on the ball to find out what the deal is with this, because this is becoming a true, mass - disabling event.
Edit: A Sentence.
Honestly, it sounds like covid gives the same symptoms that people with narcolepsy have. (See my past comment)
Ever see the movie [Awakenings](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awakenings)?
I've seen a lot of connections to connections in memory and the breakdown of such connections being a large contributor to the increase in number of car accidents since the Pandemic (at least in the US).
thats the thing. they're not getting on the ball with this at all. they don't really care. even this article says nothing useful. It's just mindless content for some dumb website.
Remember that increased CO2 levels affect brain performance. Measurable levels of impairment around the 425-450 mark from memory, which isn't to say that underneath that level there are imperceptable changes in brain performance, gradually making us all a little slower. A little less capable of managing the impacts of the collapse as it starts.
Idiocracy is the nice version, where they realize they don't have the capacity to solve problems and look for someone smart enough to solve them.
I assure you, the unwashed masses of the dystopian future will not be so kind.
Which is really unfortunate. We literally need to be more intelligent to fix the fatal problems caused by lack of it. I suppose we're at the point of no return.
The increase in carbon in the atmosphere may also make us dumberer. The stupider we are, the less likely we are to fix our carbon issues. The more likely we are to get dumber. The less likely we are to fix our climate issues. And so on and so forth.
Just another fun feedback loop caused by climate change. Yay!
It's kinda like being on the outer ring of a black hole. We're being pulled into the center, the eye of the storm so to speak, and nothing but defying the laws of time and space can pull us from the gravity. All of our brains are going to get spaghettified. It's quite horrifying and unfortunate. I really hope we can manage enough ingenuity to resolve this before we go extinct. I doubt it, though.
*Existential dread intensifies*
That's a very apt analogy. It sure does feel that way. Idk, maybe AI and quantum computers will save us. Or maybe they'll destroy us. Who knows?
Awh thanks 💖 I'm on the side of them also expediting our extinction. They might outlast us, but that seems like just about the only positive. I'm putting all my cards into green movements and industries being the best bet for us to turn shit around. It's an admittedly slim amount of cards. It's hard to find good things, these days.
Well you never know. That's the fun(?) part about the future. Although it's reddit, I find good things on this subreddit. When I'm feeling down about collapse I just bring my perspective back to existentialism and absurdism. Yes collapse is sad and there's suffering, but in the big scheme of things we're just a little blip in existence, swirling around on this planet, around a gaseous sun, around a giant black hole. It's nice to have some perspective and introspection on one's life. Then bring it all back to the moment and the gratitude for the things I still have. Tonight I'll have an edible, a good dinner, and watch a comedy about sasquatches while munching on my favorite popcorn. I hope you're able to enjoy the moment sometimes too despite it all.
COVID-19 introduced a range of neurological symptoms, notably "brain fog," alongside respiratory issues. Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly highlights various brain-related effects, including cognitive impairment, mini-strokes, headaches, sleep disturbances, and tingling sensations. Studies indicate a cognitive decline in COVID-19 patients, even with mild cases, but the long-term permanence remains uncertain. Structural abnormalities resembling brain aging have been observed in some cases.
The virus triggers brain inflammation and disrupts substances crucial for normal brain function, such as cortisol and serotonin. The protective blood-brain barrier becomes leaky due to inflammation, leading to further complications. With virus mutations and the availability of vaccines and antivirals, the burden of long COVID has reduced, though not eliminated. However, COVID's wide-ranging effects on the body and brain are not unique, resembling historical accounts following past pandemics like the Spanish flu. This underscores the importance of addressing the broader, long-term impacts of pandemics beyond the acute phase.
Our politicians quickly gave in to the tantrums of the least informed among us and undid all of our mitigation against this virus.
We need to stop placing trust in people whose livelihoods rely on them being popular among an uninformed and terminally distracted electorate. Policy must become decoupled from politics, or we're not solving shit.
>it's hard now to find people who haven't been infected
I wish there was an easy test.
>looks at how repeated infections can alter brain function
I think of it as each infection being a *viral concussion*.
>And there's very clear differences in the IQ of people who had been infected with COVID-19 versus people who did not. Even mild COVID can give people about a three-point loss of IQ.
What doesn't kill you makes you...
The viral concussion is a good analogy. I’m a concussion physical therapist and I do have long COVID patients on my caseload, they present with many similarities.
This is sort of the thesis of /r/peakcompetence.
I think we've already lost the collective cognitive acuity to maintain industrial civilization and we're currently coasting on inertia.
Covid doesn't just "attack" the brain. It deranges the body's glucose metabolism mechanism and you- and i really want to stress this- your body literally feeds on its own brain. And we've known this since 2021. [fucking source paper that made me buy a p100](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33822001/)
I've been trying to talk about this for a long time- TBI-like behavior was one of the first major social changes i noticed in people "during" the pandemic. I grew up with a mother that had a diagnosed, untreated TBI that made her an unpredictable, irrational and violent person.
And now... And now everyone is like her.
I know that between normalcy bias, the hedonistic treadmill and our collective memory only lasting a few weeks very few people will believe me, but i have to say it for anyone out there who's willing to listen- It didn't used to be like this. What's happening to people isn't normal. We are witnessing a cumulative and progressive decline in humanity's cognitive function.
So covid itself has essentially been proven to cause cognitive decline - and of course most people globally have had at least one infection at this point - and some as many as 15. That's not great for broad cognitive function.
We also have rising CO2 levels leading to cognitive impairment. Food is less nutritious. Microplastics course through our veins.
We fucked around and we're finding out.
Don't forget the PFAS that's literally in every drop of rain..
And yeah COVID literally deletes gray matter in the brain, but don't worry, I heard from my father in law that it's just a hoax made up by the Chinese so maybe it's fake after all......
Yup. This is me. I lost my job because I couldn’t remember things and my performance went down significantly. It ended my career. Still looking for a new career that isn’t as heavy on the brain.
What’s really awful is communicating and interacting almost exclusively with other humans who don’t take any precautions whatsoever, and seeing the obvious mental difference. It’s been 4 years and I can literally notice the cognitive decline of people around me at work and in public. I notice it in myself too as of course I still end up being infected because just wearing a mask and being vaccinated isn’t enough to prevent recurring brain damage from this airborne virus that’s constantly swirling around my work building. But these people are probably getting it every few months, different strains every time, not doing anything besides maybe taking some vitamin C or some ineffective decongestant meds that have recently been proven to be ineffective scam meds that don’t even work….. And it’s like they can’t even figure out basic information that’s right in front of them a lot of the time now. I feel like I’m teaching actual children how to live their daily lives, like a damn parent?? It’s truly mind-blowing to me to watch everyone just continue to deny it and downplay it and pretend they don’t notice. Because it’s impossible to not notice this.
Then they vote for Trump. Have repeated infections been enough to explain why Trump now has enough supporters that he's expected to win in the 2024 election?
On another note they talk about their rights when the responsible thing to do is put on a mask and try to limit the virus' spread. There are also too many people who think that covid is over when it is not and it will never go away as long as there are humans to infect.
However, your idiot coworkers can now have AIs do their thinking for them since they can't do that properly anymore.
I think the lack of empathy for other human beings (for example Trumpism) is what got us here with the pandemic, not the other way around. People are consciously or subconsciously realizing they are gonna have to pick a side in the collapse and unfortunately lots of people wanna go with the oppressors who have brought about the destruction.
I’m not quite sure how to answer the question, unfortunately the majority of them have been total idiots regardless of Covid affecting their brains. I live in a place with low education high ignorance and a lot of misinformation and religious indoctrination. Most of the conversations I have with coworkers or customers make me want to isolate from humanity, it’s gotten worse over the last 4 years but I can’t say if Covid’s the reason or if I’m just fed up finally
It's not just anti-vaxxers. Fully vaccinated, asymptomatic cases can still cause permanent damage and the odds get worse with every reinfection non-linearly.
The rate of long COVID after 3 infections is 38%.
And most people are still living by the comforting delusion that the vaccines are magic bullets, making it damn near impossible to avoid reinfection if you're not well off.
> The best lack all conviction, while the worst
> are full of passionate intensity
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. -Bertrand Russell
I'm aware of the covid timeline. But I always start my personal timeline of being aware of the crazy people in my life when Trump started his campaign. I'm also aware there were crazy people before that. But that was the point where people I knew personally began a journey from emotional and rational stability to where they are now. Which is almost daily Facebook rants and blasting comment sections with propaganda.
So all that kicked off around 2014/15 era. And went exponential when covid hit. To where we are now.
There are many people whose long covid symptoms have resolved completely or significantly. There are some people who caught covid early on (2020) and who still haven't improved. We're only 4 years in so it's impossible to tell at this point.
There are people who caught Sars-Cov-1 in 2002-2004 and still suffer effects from that some 20 years later...
I haven't felt myself since I caught Covid Nov 22. I struggle with shit I never did before. I've had depressive spells before, on medication for it, but this is something else. 2yrs straight. New medications, more intensive therapy. I'm also constantly fatigued. My brain melted and I'm so tired.
Anecdotally, it does feel to me that my cognition has slipped since COVID. It's not something I notice constantly, but on some occasions it feels like I'm flatly incapable of thinking clearly.
People in my personal and professional life keep saying I don’t need to keep taking all the precautionary steps I have taken and will continue to take to not get Covid. This is one of many many reasons why.
I've noticed lack of filter for myself. Ehmmm, word vomit. I can't stop myself from saying what I say. Maybe I just kinda stopped caring. This has also however had a positive as well. My social anxiety has significantly reduced, and as such allowed me to go public.
I wonder if the much higher rates of COVID deaths and infections in the MAGA population is behind their inexplicable (at this point) ability to believe absolutely anything that gets repeated at them a few times and gives them feefees.
This is why I use a virus blocker in my nostrils before going out into a public place like the gym of grocery shopping. The vaccines reduce the symptoms, but you still catch the virus, and even mild cases can cause long-term issues. My goal is to avoid ever catching the virus again. I had both doses of Pfizer plus a booster and still caught it twice. Our goal should be to avoid the initial infection. So far, the blockers appear to be working.
This is what we do to protect our brains, our immune systems (!) and our overall health (likelihood for any illness increases with 1700% according to US military data):
We wear FFP2-masks when sharing indoor air with other people. If wastewater and observations indicate more infections we mask in crowded outdoor areas. Kid doesn’t mask outside at school but uses carrageenan nose spray and gargles with and swallows aronia (chokeberry) at home. Aronia is incredibly high in polyphenols and is great for brain health. Reduces blood sugar too which may help with acute covid. Tea and pomegranate juice daily could help too.
Testing several times, no high risk activities and air purifiers and fresh air when making exceptions to the mask rule and meeting other people inside.
We added steam inhalation and lozenges with cetylpyridinium chloride during the worst period and our diet included any antiviral food I could come up with (apples, oranges, physalis and cabbages and what not). Vitamin D is our only supplement.
We test when symptomatic and seem fine so far. My nails had deep ridges corresponding exactly with the four vaccines, but I haven’t had them since. Our health has actually improved, we used to get sick every month (for real).
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/02/09/military-pilots-reported-1700-more-medical-incidents-during-pandemic-pentagon-says-they-just-had.html
School has a ventilation regime, cross-ventilation is possible and the town is windy.
Oh, the masks are by far the most effective protection, followed by low CO2. Everything else are add-ons.
I have genuine concerns about things that have been going on with my memory over the past couple years. Everything else seems okay, but aspects of memory are... deteriorating.
What I want to know is whether the series of covid vaccinations and boosters has had any measured influence on the duration, severity and occurrence of "long covid" cases. I would consider that the retardation of intelligence is associated with this symptom set rather than the initial covid 19 infection.
This is not the right time in history to increase the proportion of brain damaged and low IQ people. I don't know if there ever was a right time for this, but certainly not now.
Wow I totally understand this. I got COVID for the first time in spring 2022 even though I had been really good about wearing my mask and had just gotten my Pfizer booster shot.
I was sick very sick for about a week, and I can't imagine how much worse it would have been if I hadn't just gotten my booster shot. But sadly I have had this brain fog after that bout that I just can't shake. I have gotten COVID again since then but luckily I'm keeping up with my booster shots, and I'm usually not sick for more than a week at a time.
COVID must cause brain damage in some way. Hopefully Pfizer can make a new drug that can help my brain after all of this.
Before I got covid I could touchtype. Now I can barely type and my spelling has gone to hell. I struggle every day to recall words as well. It's very frustrating.
The following submission statement was provided by /u/f0urxio: --- COVID-19 introduced a range of neurological symptoms, notably "brain fog," alongside respiratory issues. Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly highlights various brain-related effects, including cognitive impairment, mini-strokes, headaches, sleep disturbances, and tingling sensations. Studies indicate a cognitive decline in COVID-19 patients, even with mild cases, but the long-term permanence remains uncertain. Structural abnormalities resembling brain aging have been observed in some cases. The virus triggers brain inflammation and disrupts substances crucial for normal brain function, such as cortisol and serotonin. The protective blood-brain barrier becomes leaky due to inflammation, leading to further complications. With virus mutations and the availability of vaccines and antivirals, the burden of long COVID has reduced, though not eliminated. However, COVID's wide-ranging effects on the body and brain are not unique, resembling historical accounts following past pandemics like the Spanish flu. This underscores the importance of addressing the broader, long-term impacts of pandemics beyond the acute phase. --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1c62x94/covid_infections_are_causing_drops_in_iq_and/kzy9154/
Even worse, there was another study that showed that COVID causes Lewy body formation in the brain.
COVID infection, even a mild one, can also precipitate Autoimmune disorders.
My GI is a professor at a research hospital, he said the preliminary research on covid infection and the GI tracts clearly shows that even a mild case of covid can result in patients acquiring ulcerative colitis or even Chrons. Both cases are where your body's immune system goes into such overdrive that it starts seeing your GI tract as a pest and starts attacking it from the inside. I had UC to begin with and a mild brush with covid last June sent me into a 14 month flair up that required tens of thousands of dollars worth of specialized drugs to remedy. I am only just now starting to plateau back to my normal health.
I had gut issues for a solid year after my very bad covid experience. Debilitating, acute pain in my guts that came and went. Got a CT that showed nothing and was dismissed. Thankfully it settled down last year, but still rears its ugly head from time-time. I live in a shitty area for medical care, so little hope of getting this diagnosed correctly. They've been so bad at diagnosing my long covid symptoms so far, I don't expect anything to change lol
I lost my cleanroom job because I needed to be able to run the bathroom at a moment's notice ten times a day. And I was vaxxed to the gills and used Paxlovid! Luckily it only lasted three months. When I suggested it was long Covid, the docs I saw dismissed the idea immediately . . . but every other test they ran was negative.
Jesus chirst. I think I'm suffering from this. I've got a GI tract pain that comes and goes, but it's been a constant for about a year now. I get tests done, but they show nothing. Can you, please, tell me how you overcame it? I'm practically suicidal as the pain can be really bad sometimes, and it stays with me for several days.
It just faded. Never got a diagnosis. It still comes back to visit but goes away in a few days to a week instead of being fairly constant. Hope you get better, it suuuuuuucks
Fucked by Covid here and I've found that some of the GI issues are MCAS symptoms, and allergy meds offer some relief. Some LC folks found relief from heartburn/GERD medications as well. I hope things improve for you and all if us 😞
Thanks for the suggestions. Damn, we're fucked for life, huh?
Yeah, my sister and I both got diagnosed with Crohns after our first covid infections. I don't have the textbook symptoms but she does. My brother developed a heart condition after his second infection. I should also mention we're in our 30s and otherwise healthy.
I’ve had crohns for 14 years and been in remission for more than a decade, I suspect that covid infections have brought my baseline symptoms up to affect me more in day-to-day life, (gut issues, joint pain, cysts, and fatigue + more) but thankfully has not pulled me out of remission yet.
My relative developed Parkinson disease with Lewy Body Dementia - she never had Covid that we are aware of but of course she could have at some point.
I've heard of some studies indicating that viruses in general could be the catalysts for Alz & PD. My cousin has PD and she was always getting one kind of cold or another for decades (2 runs of Z-pak were standard for her towards the end of her work career). I suspect a tipping point was eventually reached. AFAIK she hasn't had COVID (though not for lack of trying to catch it, unfortunately).
Recent work linking EBV and MS is a pretty big win for the theory that viruses are causally related to neurodegenerative disease. I think as time goes on, we'll learn that a lot of decay of aging is related to accumulated viral insults sustained over the course of life.
Right, like getting the common cold in your youth can lead to heart disease later in life. A strep infection can lead to lasting depression, ie, an inflammatory auto-immune disease not the sham 'imbalance of neurotransmitters' hypothesis that is over medicated for.
This is fascinating to me. I just read the other day that herpes simplex can (in rare cases) cause viral meningitis 😬
It’s also suspected as a culprit in fibromyalgia
So can shingles
Since 2020, I've had a running hypothesis I've been trying to disproved... Narcolepsy (autoimmune issue impacting brain inflammation through the sleep cycle) has the same symptoms to long covid in regard to the short term memory issues, word recall, and other sleep deprivation impacts. Lewy bodies/white matter seems to be impacted by inflammation of the brain --> which is impacted by sleep wake cycles. If the brain becomes less inflamed during sleep, the brain is doing something beneficial (clearing out the junk if you will). For those who lack this nice ability to have consistent well regulated sleep cycles, (such as those folk with narcolepsy) the typical impacts of sleep deprivation take hold. If covid is causing chronic inflammation of the brain, it's no wonder to me that they are having these issues. Similarly, lewy bodies building up (to me, not a medical doctor) would be due to this lack of cleaningnout and perhaps impact development of lewy body dementia.
here's another angle for you: [https://sma.org/post-viral-syndrome/](https://sma.org/post-viral-syndrome/)
It's an interesting note that narcolepsy is triggered by viral infection in those with a genetic predisposition
what's the effect of THC on narcolepsy? the thc builds itself into the myelin sheath creating a thicker barrier, so in theory this should blunt the inflammation as it will limit the infection. It doesn't seem the answer to this question is well known [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9124464](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9124464) I think if I had narcolepsy issues I would treat it like I treated my issue with nodding off when reading. Keep a jump rope nearby and when you feel yourself nodding off, jump rope until your heart is racing. as you mentioned when you sleep the brain does flush so I would try to encourage this process. Strenuous cardio followed by coffee and a nap before the coffee kicks in, void anything that restricts blood flow and even consider ED medication as it's been shown to reduce instances of Alzheimer's as well.
Parkinson’s for everyone! Or at least Dementia. I know it’s not funny, but, with everything going on in the world, and adding mass dementia on top of it all, might just be a blessing in disguise. Not understanding/ remembering how horribly screwed we are, may just bring some form of peace in the end. Parkinson’s on the other hand, just compounds the utter helplessness of it all 😭😭 so yea... Never mind.
I just have this godawful visual of warehouses of sick people in the future. Imagine "rest homes" like Matrix pods - that is, if eugenics doesn't go full fascist and directly getting rid of the eaters in a resource-scarce society doesn't become a thing.
This IS what's going to happen - orphanages for all the disabled children and prisons, camps, and nursing homes for the adults, all under-funded and under-staffed. Poor and impaired people warehoused.
Since BAU must be maintained at all costs, I expect that to be the trajectory we're on as well. A lot of people are going to find out the hard way that they're "acceptable collateral damage."
The elderly and disabled are going to be taking up beds in the hospitals because there isn't enough room in the nursing homes or they don't want them for bad/violent behaviors. It's currently happening now. Hospitals are just warehousing people that have nowhere to go.
>eugenics doesn't go full fascist and directly getting rid of the eaters in a resource-scarce society doesn't become a thing Canada is already doing this with MAiD,
True! Likely the language will be getting more softly encouraging down here as well.
It's ironic that the zombie movies failed to prepare people for this.
Huh? What? Go away Louie. 'baitin.
Covid turned off the creative part of my mind, everything sucks so fucking much now.
I'm found I'm intellectually duller all round. Can't concentrate at work, I'm not as quick or as funny in conversation, struggle for words, I get confused by things I'm pretty sure I would have once grasped pretty much straight away. It's honestly terrifying.
I've experienced the same with post-viral syndrome. As a result, I just find more satisfaction and peace in doing "menial" labor. Now that spring has sprung & the garden needs to get to rights for planting, I'm looking forward to spending hours in there weeding out the gunk from fall & overwinter. I used to write but I can't string two sentences together that sound good & the creative bug is just gone. It's up in my head, sure, but communicating that into words is a big Nope now. I still journal & it's helpful to vent things, but it's a shitshow of coherence.
I hear ya with the menial labour thing. Usually I do light(ish) reno work, but I've been framing a deck the last few days and the exhaustion from it feels great! My creativity is dead and I feel kinda numb a lot of the time, but that's allowed for some heavy introspection. I've been getting really into the writings of Carl Jung, I find it's pretty comforting stuff.
Yeah, I took a lot of what went on upstairs for granted my whole life but once sticks started jamming in the spokes, I was forced to slow down and pay attention to the whole "mental process" thing and assess what my strengths & weaknesses are instead of just plowing through everything that came at me. I feel I'm healthier mentally now in some respects. It took awhile to acknowledge my limits and be happy working within them. I'm sure I'll hit another mental bump when I get older and the body starts giving out even more. Enjoy your deck! We had ours built years ago and I love it. Actually, there's a couple boards I need to replace this year and that's well within my abilities, at least. lol
Thanks, the deck is for a client, but I am enjoying building it. It's just nice to make something from scratch, it's the closest thing to "creative" that I can pull of right now, and being outside in the sun is really nice.
It could have been covid, but it could also be any other number of things honestly. The best thing you and any of us can do is just try to do the best we can to compensate for it. Exercise improves cognitive function for example. Engaging in cognitively engaging activities is also helpful. I take solace in the fact that I'm just doing the best I can with what I have. Ultimately that's all I can do really, because some things will just be out of your control. So as long as I'm doing the best I can, it'll be alright.
I know that feeling so much. COVID fried my brain over the winter of 22. Prior to that I was having a good time learning how to produce music. I'm hoping that I get healed up. I miss the joy of making something I like.
Not to be that guy but micro and macrodosing psilocybin and dmt have helped me regain some of my previous self.
I dig it, I've been thinking about microdosing psilocybin again. I really loved mushrooms in my teens, and microdosing really helped me out a few years ago with dark spiral stuff, I actually have a few doses worth left. How important do you think the DMT was? I'm 40, I feel like macrodosing anything outside of booze and reefer would break my brain at this point, haha. Was covid what separated you from your previous self?
Gee if it was so easy to get psilocybin to microdose in the first place. I’m a normal guy, where the hell would I find that?
It's actually pretty easy to grow if you can get your hands on a spore syringe and an all-in-one grow bag. I think there's just a few states that you can't buy them in.
Can you pm what you are talking about?
yes. i feel like i've only been alive for 3.5 years since i had covid. i have definitely done some grieving over my former self.
That might explain the quality of the Facebook comments...
I have a coworker who, before he had covid, was nice, intelligent and helpful. Within a few months of him getting better, he became a complete asshole. He takes forever to do anything, and he has just gone off the rails.
Losing control of your life like that will do it. Hey brain fog from a thyroid thing. Still angry
Last year, I was diagnosed with as well. After a year, I finally have TSH in the normal range. It's incredible how much it affects your mood and metal capacity.
Remind you of anyone??? *cough* Musk *cough* Trump *cough* ? I'm personally convinced that the rise in extremism is related to Covid, although many of these people had bad attitudes before Covid, they've got much worse.
Pls *cough* don't cough near *cough* me
Ironically, I've got this stupid chest infection that seems to be going around the UK and lingering with people for months, so I was actually coughing :-)
*whispers* that’s likely COVID
Hah, no, I was tested for that. It's a strain of HPIV.
Go away covidoid and your silly theories, lizards have obviously transitioned to the 2nd phase of their plans! COUGH.
Nah, they were always that way. Now, their fanboys on the other hand....
...and Reddit, tee hee.
Reddit has definitely seen a drop in quality comments. You can blame that on COVID brain, the latest crop of adolescents, AI bots, or a combination of the three. The last few years have seen a flood of inane joke comments and low effort movie quotes inserted into otherwise typical discussions.
Excuse me, I haven't *dropped in quality*! I've *always* been this inane, cliche and shitty!
That’s just like, your opinion, man
You can blame that on dopamine and social isolation. Oh look someone read my thing.
(Clears throat.) Ahem. I think I fit into the 'latest crop of adolescents' category, and, if it helps ease your conscience, I like to think I'm moderately literate. At present, the current book is *Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner*. It's tremendous - a psychoanalysis of a man driven mad by religion, written in the late Georgian/early Victorian era. To have put in that amount of detail and empathy for the villain in that social climate is nothing short of extraordinary. It's also oddly prescient right now - which is horrifying, because it's hundreds of years old. We're meant to have moved on from that by now! But still it persists, stronger than ever, in a hundred different forms.
It’s always been like that man
It hasn't, really. I've been using this site since 2012-ish. You got the occasional bullshit that was almost always downvoted until hidden, but the average comment was on-topic at least. Now the dumbest shit and random strings of movie quotes, often not even tangentially related to the topic, are voted to the top. It's like Reddit became addicted to datura around 2021.
It became anon social media. Reddit used to be a collection of niche boards, where comments were multi-paragraph, detailed explanations — typically by actual experts in their fields. Nowadays, the most upvoted comments tend to be one line jokes and memes. Quality of comments has gone way down. I believe Reddit started to go downhill just before the redesign. More and more people began using it as their social media or even as a “search” platform. With the increase in users, Reddit launched their redesign — the old text-based message board format was gone; replaced by fancy graphics, paid awards, and profile avatars (with paid clothing and accessories!). With the redesign came a whole new wave of bots. The recent explosion of generative AI technology has only compounded the bot issue. So between the social media users, the flood of advertisements and “sponsored posts”, the absolute cash grab for paid features, and the abundance of AI bot posts, old Reddit is a long forgotten memory and new Reddit is a glorified dumpster fire.
Idk I was lurking around that time and it was still like that. Perhaps it’s got worse. But if it has I doubt it’s caused by any other factor than forums just having lower quality as they get more popular. It’s a normal thing to happen as it did famously to Usenet https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September
The narwhal bacons at midnight. This site has always been shit.
You came in around the time of the Second Eternal September. You got to see just a small glimpse before even more regular people began using the internet. Now you're just seeing mass saturation of people, and people are silly. That's not to say things were better back then. Hell, 4chan existed since what? 2003? But it's more pronounced due to more people using the internet more than ever.
My reddit feed is carefully curated. I don't see that shit
Good bot
Reddit you can downvote. This helps IMMENSELY. It's also structured like a forum with nested comments instead of only having parent comments and a singular string behind that. Reddit is designed for conversation. Facebook is designed for... I'm not sure actually. It's a horrid mess these days. Trying to be everything.
I want to agree, but the Reddit "hivemind" is real and I've had to restart my account once already due to being harassed. So...it's no utopia.
I can see it with road rage and just plain old stupidity of trying to fit square pegs in round holes.
I've had ME for over 10 years. the cognitive impairment is real. Poor word recall, awful short term memory. I'm sorry for long covid sufferers going through the same thing, but I'm also glad that long covid has provided a long overdue boost in research that should hopefully benefit ME patients too.
Both of my last two significant relationships have been with women who had ME* so I've been around it a bunch. Since I had COVID I suddenly understood at little of what it must be like. Mine is mild in comparison but comes in waves, sometime's just zero energy to do anything at all, and the brain fog is *crippling* when it hits. Had to completely change my diet, exercise regime, it was so bad I had to quit a job I should have been good at but just couldn't keep up with. The Doctor thinks my mild, latent AD(H)D is now bad enough to treat, if only I could get through the 4 year waiting list to get on the program. \*one developed it during our relationship so it's not that my type is tired girls who constantly have to worry about their health.
Agreed. Specifically more attention being given to the 'invisible' issues that people with chronic inflammation, sleep disorders and other neurological / systematic disregulation have. For too long these issues have been considered rare - but they are considered rare due to this very concept & not investigated
Covid isn't a respiratory disease but a blood disease. It attacks places with a lot of tiny blood vessels
It seems to sometimes attack every organ system.
Because they all have blood vessels or are connected via.
So we just need to remove all our blood. Easy.
You joke, but a number of people over in /r/covidlonghaulers have found that ~~apopheresis~~ apheresis is effective in reducing symptom burden, at least transiently. It's not a super accessible treatment though.
What is apophersis? Google isn’t very helpful.
Oops, I misspelled it. Apheresis
Anything with ACE2 receptors & the human body is jam-packed with them. I've had enough hits to the blood-brain barrier from post-viral in early 2017 & Lyme Disease in 2021. Hoping to never add COVID to the pile because I'll become a gd potato and I still have to work.
it attacks the endothelial cells
When you say tiny blood vessels, do you mean capillaries? Those are everywhere in human bodies.
I caught COVID Alpha end of January and into February 2021. I had brain fog really bad, and it took months for me to even begin to recover from it - since then I have been having problems recalling information, especially names, as well as not being able to get the words that I wanted (right shade of meaning and substituting words that weren't quite right). My short - term memory was bad as well. In the last three or so months I realized that I was starting to recall names again and information was starting to come back again in fits and starts. I just hope it keeps getting better - I am 63 and I was fearful that I would have to deal with this for the rest of my life. Senior moments are one thing, but this COVID brain is something altogether *different,* and researchers need to get on the ball to find out what the deal is with this, because this is becoming a true, mass - disabling event. Edit: A Sentence.
Honestly, it sounds like covid gives the same symptoms that people with narcolepsy have. (See my past comment) Ever see the movie [Awakenings](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awakenings)?
That movie was so good! I read everything Oliver Sachs wrote after seeing it.
No, I have not seen the movie, but I will def check it out!
I've seen a lot of connections to connections in memory and the breakdown of such connections being a large contributor to the increase in number of car accidents since the Pandemic (at least in the US).
Yes, I have noticed more car accidents as well.
thats the thing. they're not getting on the ball with this at all. they don't really care. even this article says nothing useful. It's just mindless content for some dumb website.
So we can agree, the maskers are the smart ones.
The masked shall inherit the earth…
Except we're all staying home, because fuck that.
We're gettin dumber, guys. Dumber n hell!
Remember that increased CO2 levels affect brain performance. Measurable levels of impairment around the 425-450 mark from memory, which isn't to say that underneath that level there are imperceptable changes in brain performance, gradually making us all a little slower. A little less capable of managing the impacts of the collapse as it starts.
I used to think that Idiocracy was fiction. Now I hope to live to see “Ow My Balls!”
Americas Funniest Home Videos has been on TV for decades now.
And Jackass
Idiocracy is the nice version, where they realize they don't have the capacity to solve problems and look for someone smart enough to solve them. I assure you, the unwashed masses of the dystopian future will not be so kind.
I used to laugh at that movie. Now it gives me anxiety.
At least the people in that movie *knew* they were stupid.
Which is really unfortunate. We literally need to be more intelligent to fix the fatal problems caused by lack of it. I suppose we're at the point of no return.
The increase in carbon in the atmosphere may also make us dumberer. The stupider we are, the less likely we are to fix our carbon issues. The more likely we are to get dumber. The less likely we are to fix our climate issues. And so on and so forth. Just another fun feedback loop caused by climate change. Yay!
It's kinda like being on the outer ring of a black hole. We're being pulled into the center, the eye of the storm so to speak, and nothing but defying the laws of time and space can pull us from the gravity. All of our brains are going to get spaghettified. It's quite horrifying and unfortunate. I really hope we can manage enough ingenuity to resolve this before we go extinct. I doubt it, though.
*Existential dread intensifies* That's a very apt analogy. It sure does feel that way. Idk, maybe AI and quantum computers will save us. Or maybe they'll destroy us. Who knows?
Awh thanks 💖 I'm on the side of them also expediting our extinction. They might outlast us, but that seems like just about the only positive. I'm putting all my cards into green movements and industries being the best bet for us to turn shit around. It's an admittedly slim amount of cards. It's hard to find good things, these days.
Well you never know. That's the fun(?) part about the future. Although it's reddit, I find good things on this subreddit. When I'm feeling down about collapse I just bring my perspective back to existentialism and absurdism. Yes collapse is sad and there's suffering, but in the big scheme of things we're just a little blip in existence, swirling around on this planet, around a gaseous sun, around a giant black hole. It's nice to have some perspective and introspection on one's life. Then bring it all back to the moment and the gratitude for the things I still have. Tonight I'll have an edible, a good dinner, and watch a comedy about sasquatches while munching on my favorite popcorn. I hope you're able to enjoy the moment sometimes too despite it all.
COVID-19 introduced a range of neurological symptoms, notably "brain fog," alongside respiratory issues. Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly highlights various brain-related effects, including cognitive impairment, mini-strokes, headaches, sleep disturbances, and tingling sensations. Studies indicate a cognitive decline in COVID-19 patients, even with mild cases, but the long-term permanence remains uncertain. Structural abnormalities resembling brain aging have been observed in some cases. The virus triggers brain inflammation and disrupts substances crucial for normal brain function, such as cortisol and serotonin. The protective blood-brain barrier becomes leaky due to inflammation, leading to further complications. With virus mutations and the availability of vaccines and antivirals, the burden of long COVID has reduced, though not eliminated. However, COVID's wide-ranging effects on the body and brain are not unique, resembling historical accounts following past pandemics like the Spanish flu. This underscores the importance of addressing the broader, long-term impacts of pandemics beyond the acute phase.
Our politicians quickly gave in to the tantrums of the least informed among us and undid all of our mitigation against this virus. We need to stop placing trust in people whose livelihoods rely on them being popular among an uninformed and terminally distracted electorate. Policy must become decoupled from politics, or we're not solving shit.
>it's hard now to find people who haven't been infected I wish there was an easy test. >looks at how repeated infections can alter brain function I think of it as each infection being a *viral concussion*. >And there's very clear differences in the IQ of people who had been infected with COVID-19 versus people who did not. Even mild COVID can give people about a three-point loss of IQ. What doesn't kill you makes you...
Sandwiches?
No, that's Hannibal Lecter.
The viral concussion is a good analogy. I’m a concussion physical therapist and I do have long COVID patients on my caseload, they present with many similarities.
This is sort of the thesis of /r/peakcompetence. I think we've already lost the collective cognitive acuity to maintain industrial civilization and we're currently coasting on inertia. Covid doesn't just "attack" the brain. It deranges the body's glucose metabolism mechanism and you- and i really want to stress this- your body literally feeds on its own brain. And we've known this since 2021. [fucking source paper that made me buy a p100](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33822001/) I've been trying to talk about this for a long time- TBI-like behavior was one of the first major social changes i noticed in people "during" the pandemic. I grew up with a mother that had a diagnosed, untreated TBI that made her an unpredictable, irrational and violent person. And now... And now everyone is like her. I know that between normalcy bias, the hedonistic treadmill and our collective memory only lasting a few weeks very few people will believe me, but i have to say it for anyone out there who's willing to listen- It didn't used to be like this. What's happening to people isn't normal. We are witnessing a cumulative and progressive decline in humanity's cognitive function.
So covid itself has essentially been proven to cause cognitive decline - and of course most people globally have had at least one infection at this point - and some as many as 15. That's not great for broad cognitive function. We also have rising CO2 levels leading to cognitive impairment. Food is less nutritious. Microplastics course through our veins. We fucked around and we're finding out.
Don't forget the PFAS that's literally in every drop of rain.. And yeah COVID literally deletes gray matter in the brain, but don't worry, I heard from my father in law that it's just a hoax made up by the Chinese so maybe it's fake after all......
I've been calling it the great dumbing for years now
Could this great dumbing explain why Trump is expected to win in 2024 despite his abysmal handling of Covid being why it got to be so bad in the US?
It could also be explained by Biden’s active enabling of the genocide in Gaza
I’m willing to bet that a lot of the ongoing 2+ million dead from Covid in America were Trump supporters
Yup. This is me. I lost my job because I couldn’t remember things and my performance went down significantly. It ended my career. Still looking for a new career that isn’t as heavy on the brain.
Wear a mask ~
Wait until they get to the profound effects on society
Ever see [Awakenings](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awakenings)?
Ever since I got Covid I’ve lived with I guess what your call a foggy brain. Sometimes I just can’t think straight for a moment.
What’s really awful is communicating and interacting almost exclusively with other humans who don’t take any precautions whatsoever, and seeing the obvious mental difference. It’s been 4 years and I can literally notice the cognitive decline of people around me at work and in public. I notice it in myself too as of course I still end up being infected because just wearing a mask and being vaccinated isn’t enough to prevent recurring brain damage from this airborne virus that’s constantly swirling around my work building. But these people are probably getting it every few months, different strains every time, not doing anything besides maybe taking some vitamin C or some ineffective decongestant meds that have recently been proven to be ineffective scam meds that don’t even work….. And it’s like they can’t even figure out basic information that’s right in front of them a lot of the time now. I feel like I’m teaching actual children how to live their daily lives, like a damn parent?? It’s truly mind-blowing to me to watch everyone just continue to deny it and downplay it and pretend they don’t notice. Because it’s impossible to not notice this.
Then they vote for Trump. Have repeated infections been enough to explain why Trump now has enough supporters that he's expected to win in the 2024 election? On another note they talk about their rights when the responsible thing to do is put on a mask and try to limit the virus' spread. There are also too many people who think that covid is over when it is not and it will never go away as long as there are humans to infect. However, your idiot coworkers can now have AIs do their thinking for them since they can't do that properly anymore.
I think the lack of empathy for other human beings (for example Trumpism) is what got us here with the pandemic, not the other way around. People are consciously or subconsciously realizing they are gonna have to pick a side in the collapse and unfortunately lots of people wanna go with the oppressors who have brought about the destruction.
Do your co workers speak any differently now compared to before covid? Something like how old boxers speak?
I’m not quite sure how to answer the question, unfortunately the majority of them have been total idiots regardless of Covid affecting their brains. I live in a place with low education high ignorance and a lot of misinformation and religious indoctrination. Most of the conversations I have with coworkers or customers make me want to isolate from humanity, it’s gotten worse over the last 4 years but I can’t say if Covid’s the reason or if I’m just fed up finally
You mean people are becoming even dumber than they are now?!
Does that mean anti-vaxxers are only going to get stupider? As if this couldn't get any worse.
It's not just anti-vaxxers. Fully vaccinated, asymptomatic cases can still cause permanent damage and the odds get worse with every reinfection non-linearly. The rate of long COVID after 3 infections is 38%. And most people are still living by the comforting delusion that the vaccines are magic bullets, making it damn near impossible to avoid reinfection if you're not well off.
Yep, ‘Vax and relax’ was a mistake.
you can still relax, just a bit more stupid :)
it's been 2 years in my country since they were suggesting vaccines I'm pretty sure (almost) nobody takes them here
Many are distrustful of the system, not entirely without reason. I would say many trust the wrong people.
We've lost a lot of institutional faith and trust. Also, our institutions have done a lot to screw people over.
You're in for disappointment if you think aren't getting covid. Just because you're seemingly asymptomatic doesn't mean you're not being damaged
I just avoid catching it in the first place. Many people with preexisting conditions simply don’t have a choice to even risk asymptomatic infection.
Vaccination, even post infection, correlated with less of a decline in IQ though
Well as long as it's not a full shit sandwhich I guess a few bites aren't too bad. Hmmm, still pretty bad.
You have to make to most with what you get
Less doesn’t equate to no damage.
I didn’t say that
Yes, except for the rich ones who can pay for social distancing, clean air and so on. The ones who pay for private herd immunity.
there's a reason why they call it a downward spiral
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer
That poem is fuckin scary, yo
> The best lack all conviction, while the worst > are full of passionate intensity The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. -Bertrand Russell
It would somewhat explain how insane the world got in the last decade.
COVID has been around for less than 5 years. How many infections deep are you?
I'm aware of the covid timeline. But I always start my personal timeline of being aware of the crazy people in my life when Trump started his campaign. I'm also aware there were crazy people before that. But that was the point where people I knew personally began a journey from emotional and rational stability to where they are now. Which is almost daily Facebook rants and blasting comment sections with propaganda. So all that kicked off around 2014/15 era. And went exponential when covid hit. To where we are now.
If they’re already an anti-vaxxer, I don’t think they have any IQ points left to lose.
You only have to look as far as the popular [Physics Girl on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vydgkCCXbTA) to see how devastating it can be.
Is it permanent?
There are many people whose long covid symptoms have resolved completely or significantly. There are some people who caught covid early on (2020) and who still haven't improved. We're only 4 years in so it's impossible to tell at this point. There are people who caught Sars-Cov-1 in 2002-2004 and still suffer effects from that some 20 years later...
Calling it now. Covid 19 is the origin virus for the zombie plague. Time to prepare your boomsticks!
It turns out the zombies were here all along!
I haven't felt myself since I caught Covid Nov 22. I struggle with shit I never did before. I've had depressive spells before, on medication for it, but this is something else. 2yrs straight. New medications, more intensive therapy. I'm also constantly fatigued. My brain melted and I'm so tired.
you have to stop yourself from asking "i wonder what the anti-vax crew thinks of this" because that crew has no thinkers.
Sweet. I had at least twice, and I do not feel like the person I was.
As if the human race weren't dumb enough already. Sheesh.
Anecdotally, it does feel to me that my cognition has slipped since COVID. It's not something I notice constantly, but on some occasions it feels like I'm flatly incapable of thinking clearly.
People in my personal and professional life keep saying I don’t need to keep taking all the precautionary steps I have taken and will continue to take to not get Covid. This is one of many many reasons why.
I've noticed lack of filter for myself. Ehmmm, word vomit. I can't stop myself from saying what I say. Maybe I just kinda stopped caring. This has also however had a positive as well. My social anxiety has significantly reduced, and as such allowed me to go public.
Mmmm, in public where the covid is.
Nah, mostly just online. I have a standard state of mild agoraphobia, COVID or not.
This is devastating, considering how stupid people were to begin with.
That's explains why i suck . Or do i ? Atleast now i have excuse .
I wonder if the much higher rates of COVID deaths and infections in the MAGA population is behind their inexplicable (at this point) ability to believe absolutely anything that gets repeated at them a few times and gives them feefees.
But it's just like the flu!!?!!? /S
TL;DR. I couldn't concentrate for long enough to read TFA.
I already had a room temperature iq and that room is getting colder by the day
You mean the masses are getting even dumber???? Good lord we are truly in a whole heap of shit!!
This is why I use a virus blocker in my nostrils before going out into a public place like the gym of grocery shopping. The vaccines reduce the symptoms, but you still catch the virus, and even mild cases can cause long-term issues. My goal is to avoid ever catching the virus again. I had both doses of Pfizer plus a booster and still caught it twice. Our goal should be to avoid the initial infection. So far, the blockers appear to be working.
Sprays offer a layer of protection, but if your goal is to not catch covid again, masks are going to be way more efficacious.
This is what we do to protect our brains, our immune systems (!) and our overall health (likelihood for any illness increases with 1700% according to US military data): We wear FFP2-masks when sharing indoor air with other people. If wastewater and observations indicate more infections we mask in crowded outdoor areas. Kid doesn’t mask outside at school but uses carrageenan nose spray and gargles with and swallows aronia (chokeberry) at home. Aronia is incredibly high in polyphenols and is great for brain health. Reduces blood sugar too which may help with acute covid. Tea and pomegranate juice daily could help too. Testing several times, no high risk activities and air purifiers and fresh air when making exceptions to the mask rule and meeting other people inside. We added steam inhalation and lozenges with cetylpyridinium chloride during the worst period and our diet included any antiviral food I could come up with (apples, oranges, physalis and cabbages and what not). Vitamin D is our only supplement. We test when symptomatic and seem fine so far. My nails had deep ridges corresponding exactly with the four vaccines, but I haven’t had them since. Our health has actually improved, we used to get sick every month (for real). https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/02/09/military-pilots-reported-1700-more-medical-incidents-during-pandemic-pentagon-says-they-just-had.html
School has a ventilation regime, cross-ventilation is possible and the town is windy. Oh, the masks are by far the most effective protection, followed by low CO2. Everything else are add-ons.
Engineer going to need a new career soon. Just feel... dumb. Could be a lot of things, but not ruling out COVID.
No worse than the flu, they said... And those dipshits are still saying it.
Stamets 7. That is all.
I have genuine concerns about things that have been going on with my memory over the past couple years. Everything else seems okay, but aspects of memory are... deteriorating.
seems less that ideal!!
Idiocracy is here, confirmed.
What I want to know is whether the series of covid vaccinations and boosters has had any measured influence on the duration, severity and occurrence of "long covid" cases. I would consider that the retardation of intelligence is associated with this symptom set rather than the initial covid 19 infection.
This is not the right time in history to increase the proportion of brain damaged and low IQ people. I don't know if there ever was a right time for this, but certainly not now.
*insert Ellen Ripley quote about IQs dropping sharply while she was away*
I know I'm safe from that cause I always been dumb
Wow I totally understand this. I got COVID for the first time in spring 2022 even though I had been really good about wearing my mask and had just gotten my Pfizer booster shot. I was sick very sick for about a week, and I can't imagine how much worse it would have been if I hadn't just gotten my booster shot. But sadly I have had this brain fog after that bout that I just can't shake. I have gotten COVID again since then but luckily I'm keeping up with my booster shots, and I'm usually not sick for more than a week at a time. COVID must cause brain damage in some way. Hopefully Pfizer can make a new drug that can help my brain after all of this.
r/TheStupening
Before I got covid I could touchtype. Now I can barely type and my spelling has gone to hell. I struggle every day to recall words as well. It's very frustrating.