We Just Got More Evidence That Long COVID Is a Brain Injury
The exact nature of long COVID is still coming to light, but we just got some of the best evidence yet that this debilitating condition stems from a brain injury.
Using high-resolution scanners, researchers at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford have shown microscopic, structural abnormalities in the brainstems of those recovering from COVID-19.
Signs of brain inflammation were present up to 18 months after first contracting the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
"We show that the brainstem is a site of vulnerability to long-term effects of COVID-19, with persistent changes evident in the months after hospitalization," the authors of the study conclude.
https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awae215
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Better not get vaccinated, because the vaccine kills you and covid is just another harmless flu anyway… oh wait.
Seriously though, antivaxxers already have some sort of psychological issues going on, so adding a literal brain injury to the list might not even make a big difference at that point.
Things can always be worse.
COVID makes you dumber, but what happens if you start out dumb?
There is no floor except the for the artificial one built out of privilege.
The current administration awards you a place in office.
Even lower intelligence score? As far as D&D rules are concerned, you would get knocked unconscious if your intelligence drops to zero.
Should probably also limit new max intelligence after you regain consciousness. That seems to be the case IRL.
Sounds like a fun (and terrifying) idea for homebrew rules. I asked Mistral to write suitable rules, and here's what what I ended up with.
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When a character contracts COVID-19, they must make a Constitution saving throw (DC 15). On a failed save, the character develops Long COVID. The effects of Long COVID are varied and can include fatigue, shortness of breath, and other physical ailments. However, the most feared complication is brain injury.
Brain Injury
Brain injury from Long COVID reduces a character's Intelligence score. To determine the extent of the damage, the character must make a roll based on their current Intelligence score:
Roll a d20: The result of this roll will determine the severity of the brain injury. Modify the Roll: Subtract the character's Intelligence modifier from the roll. For example, if the character has an Intelligence score of 14 (modifier +2), subtract 2 from the d20 roll. Determine Intelligence Loss:
New Hard Maximum
Once the Intelligence loss is determined, the character's new Intelligence score becomes their hard maximum for the rest of the game. This means that even with magical healing, potions, or other means of restoring Intelligence, the character cannot exceed this new maximum.
Oh, wait. That means that if you do drop to zero, you'll be in permanent coma for the rest of the game without any hope of recovery. I guess I should add some exception, that allows to you recover back to 1 point, but no higher than that.
I went looking for data, because my knee-jerk was to assume people who get vaccinated are more likely to live, and thus more likely to get long covid.
But here's what I found. The researchers found that the rate of new Long COVID cases declined with each variant, and that the numbers of cases were significantly lower in the vaccinated cohorts.
I'm just adding to the discourse.
Indeed! Too bad facts don’t work when talking to conspiracy theorists. Regardless, that’s an interesting observation to the rest of us.
The majority of people with Long COVID were vaccinated. (Because the majority of people were vaccinated and vaccination only slightly reduces chances of long COVID).
Also, many long COVID cases happened before the vaccines even came out.
So I don’t think your attitude of victim blaming really works here.
I guess I should have been more specific. People who actively choose not to get vaccinated, and get terribly ill as a direct result of their delusional thinking, can blame themselves.
If you took all the sensible precautions, like getting vaccinated, but ended up with long covid regardless, that’s not your fault. You did what you could, but some times even that isn’t enough.
What’s your point? Don’t get vaccinated because it doesn’t prevent long covid anyway? Vaccination saves lives. Period. Even your own statistic pointed out a 2% difference between vax/non-vax in getting long covid, and with hundreds of millions of covid infections every year, that 2% is a significant number of people spared long covid by vaccination.
Uh huh.
Got some data to back that?
How do you know that the majority of people with Long COVID were vaccinated. This 2023 study says
The majority of the NIH’s Recover Cohort (the largest studied cohort of people with Long COVID) was vaccinated.
Recent literature reviews put the risk of getting long COVID at about 10% for vaccinated people and 12% for unvaccinated. So definitely it helps, but it really isn’t a miracle. And the studies showing vaccines had a therapeutic effect on long COVID itself failed replication.
Great. Send the link. Why it’s important, now more than ever, to fact check on the internet