Does COVID infect the brain?
The world is still learning a lot about COVID-19.
The world is still learning a lot about science and medicine.
For example, Varicella-Zoster Virus (VZV, aka alphaherpesvirus 3, aka HHV-3) was linked to chickenpox way
back in 1888,
and scientists still don't agree whether it can trigger unpleasant shingles many years later.
We do know that COVID knocks out the sense of taste and smell.
More accurately, it causes the brain to be unable to process taste and smell.
It affects the brain.
Back on the 23rd June 2020, the BBC reported
"Some scientists suspect that Covid-19 causes respiratory failure and death not
through damage to the lungs,
but the brain – and other symptoms include headaches, strokes and seizures."
The reading gets heavier.
25th June 2020,
researchers at the University of Southampton (UK)
found that, of 125 who had tested positive for COVID and assessed, 77 had experienced a cerebrovascular
event and 39 "presented with altered mental status". 10 people developed psychosis.
8th July 2020,
UK university teams reported one of the first cases of psychosis following Covid.
A woman in her 50s, with no psychiatric history,
was becoming disoriented and aggressive towards others, seeing lions and monkeys in her house,
putting her coat on and off, and was convinced that her husband was an impostor.
1st August 2020, Fudan University in Shanghai, China, reported
"revealed possible disruption to micro-structural and functional brain integrity in the
recovery stages of COVID-19, suggesting the long-term consequences of SARS-CoV-2."
having previously stated that
"Increasing evidence supported the possible neuro-invasion potential of SARS-CoV-2."
Alysson Muotri, a neuroscientist at the University of California, said
"The neurological symptoms are only becoming more and more scary"
