Author Archives: Alison

Covid and the Brain

Covid and the Brain

I tell anti-vaxers/covidiots “death is not the only negative outcome” so many times that it autofills on my phone starting with the first word. Here are the Twitter bookmarks I saved on what we’ve learned so far on how covid19 damages the brain. I’m sure there’s more. Let me know if I missed anything good. This is just what I’ve saved on the doomed bird site.

An overview of some known effects: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/covid-19-can-cause-brain-shrinkage-memory-loss-study-2022-03-08/

Even without infecting the brain, covid damages it: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19-damages-brain-without-infecting-it-study-suggests

Even without being a bad case of covid, covid damages the brain: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/long-covid-even-mild-covid-linked-damage-brain-months-infection-rcna18959

Some covid survivors’ brains exhibit Alzheimer’s-like characteristics: https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/alz.12558

A few of the ways covid affects the brain, including strokes caused by clots: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/12/16/1064594686/how-covid-threatens-the-brain

Covid strokes could be more disabling than other kinds of strokes: https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2022/02/09/stroke-COVID-19/2561644417866/

Covid strokes also affect younger people: https://www.jefferson.edu/about/news-and-events/2022/03/study-confirms-stroke-risk-in-younger-covid19-patients.html The largest study on severe stroke and COVID-19 published to date found even moderate COVID-19 infection increased risk of death in younger, healthier stroke patients.

We saw covid increasing risk of strokes in young adults early on, too. This is from 2020: https://www.thelancet.com/article/S1474-4422(20)30272-6/fulltext

Lots of neurological impairments are measurable after covid infection: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/article-abstract/2785388

This article addresses both short-term and long-term neurological effects of covid: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41582-021-00593-7 I’ll repeat it in my post about Long Covid.

The brain is a complex organ that we don’t entirely understand yet. There are many functions we don’t understand, and processes that can’t be measured. Despite claims about neuroplasticity giving the brain the ability to heal itself, we also know that that’s not true in most cases of damage. Neurons don’t reproduce, and because not all broken pathways can re-route, some neurological damage will not only not improve, but will worsen or cause further damage by interrupting communication. Given what we do know about brain injury, especially delayed onset injury from viral infections, it’s quite possible that we will see young people disabled by neurodegenerative conditions caused by covid in the next decade, at least. Messing up your brain is not worth it. Get vaccinated. Wear a good quality mask. Avoid crowds, especially indoors. Don’t risk it.

MASKS DON’T WORK!!! (Links that show they do.)

MASKS DON’T WORK!!! (Links that show they do.)

More bookmarked links. again, I’ll try to be organized, but that’s not easy for me!

One of my favorite links on why this isn’t true, because it’s a video for anti-vaxers who don’t read: https://youtu.be/eAdanPfQdCA

An article outlining much of the same: https://www.wired.com/story/the-physics-of-the-n95-face-mask/

h/t to Leo Lam: https://www.epa.gov/sciencematters/epa-researchers-test-effectiveness-face-masks-disinfection-methods-against-covid-19

Face masks for children do more good than harm: https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/COVID-19/Pages/Cloth-Face-Coverings-for-Children-During-COVID-19.aspx

The CDC on masks: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/masking-science-sars-cov2.html

Masks don’t block oxygen: https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/n95-face-mask-limit-breathe-oxygen/

A few from Dr. Ian MacKay’s Twitter thread on masks before Twitter gets exploded…

N-95s and air filtration: https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/226/2/199/6582941?login=false

How much protection you get from different types of masks: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/commentary-what-can-masks-do-part-1-science-behind-covid-19-protection

Any mask is better than no mask: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2110117118

And another h/t to John E. Canuck, who filled a thread with good information that shouldn’t disappear just because Twitter does…

JAMA article on mask-wearing to control community spread of covid: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2776536

Universal masking reduced covid cases in health care workers: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2768533

Systematic review/meta-analysis on effectiveness of masking and other measures: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31142-9/fulltext

Another review: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2014564118

Masking cuts infection rates in half: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2789302

Even surgical masks help: https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2021/09/surgical-masks-covid-19.html

Again, any mask is better than nothing: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02786826.2022.2053656

Lifting masking requirements in schools + more covid: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2211029

Masks in schools prevent spread outside of schools, too: https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/149/6/e2022056687/185379/School-Masking-Policies-and-Secondary-SARS-CoV-2?autologincheck=redirected?nfToken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

School masking helped prevent Delta cases: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/mandatory-masking-schools-reduced-covid-19-cases

Yep, masks in schools still reduce transmission: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/13511

So we have a lot of evidence debunking the claim in the title. I hope this is enough, but there will probably never be enough to satisfy the covidiots. Keep yourselves and your loved ones safe.

Viral Replication

Viral Replication

Since I do not trust Twitter to survive, or even to not start disappearing tweets, I’m going to move some of the bookmarked tweets and helpful links I’ve collected bit by bit, attempting some semblance of order (wish me luck on that) so I can find them when I need them, and they can be used by others. I’m always open to suggestions from reliable sources, too, so if at any point you think a study or an article from a reputable source that should be preserved or shared, put it in a comment, and I’ll be happy to read it/add it to a post.

My pinned tweet from December 9, 2021, got a lot of angry responses from anti-vaxers, so I know it was good!

“It’s amazing how many people think that needing more vaccines is a failure of the vaccine, rather than the success of the virus mutating in unvaccinated hosts.”

A simple explanation of what viruses are and how they work from National Geographic: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/viruses

Course Hero explains viral replication: https://www.coursehero.com/study-guides/boundless-microbiology/viral-replication/

Medical Net explains viral replication: https://www.news-medical.net/health/How-does-Viral-Replication-Work.aspx

Texas Gateway explains viral replication: https://www.texasgateway.org/resource/virus-reproduction

Nature explains SARS-CoV2 viral replication: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-020-00468-6

How SARS-CoV2 infects cells: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02039-y?s=09

Why vaccines won’t produce worse variants: https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/vaccines-will-not-produce-worse-variants?s=09

On the evolution of new variants of SARS-CoV2: https://www.science.org/content/article/new-sars-cov-2-variants-have-changed-pandemic-what-will-virus-do-next?s=09#.YaOtiLU95dg.twitter

How infections, not vaccines, drive viral mutation: https://theconversation.com/massive-numbers-of-new-covid-19-infections-not-vaccines-are-the-main-driver-of-new-coronavirus-variants-166882

A video from Vaccine Makers Project on how viruses reproduce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHHrph7zDLw

How prolonged infections drive mutations: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01613-2

These are the ones I bookmarked, there may be more I liked and shared, but didn’t put in the thread or my bookmarks. If you know of anything that helps explain why vaccines don’t cause viral mutations, especially simply written ones that laypeople could understand, drop me a line. If you don’t, I hope you can get something out of these links!