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Brain imaging before and after Covid-19 in UK Biobank

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Re: Brain imaging before and after Covid-19 in UK Biobank

#21
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there some reason to expect that covid-19 is different in long term effects than a flu? This study is saying it causes substantial brain damage, right? What possible mechanism is there for this?

Lots of diseases result in nerve damage. Polio was famous for this, after all. Different viruses infect different tissues. This is why we don't like getting sick, and push vaccines where we can. Infectious diseases that don't have long term effects are actually comparatively few in numbers -- those are the ones we tend to "get sick" with, for the simple reason that they aren't worth the effort of trying to control. T…

Adding onto this comment.

A lot of viruses do really shitty things to you. HIV, HPV, etc etc

And we've seen covid pass the BBB in mice. So expect more info like this.

Re: Brain imaging before and after Covid-19 in UK Biobank

#23

> And while our results were not significant So what does this mean, need more research?

The part that needs more research is the level of difference between hospitalized and non-hospitalized COVID patients. They only had 15 who were hospitalized.

Also ...

> Unlike in post hoc disease studies, the availability of pre-infection imaging data helps avoid ...

That depends on why the earlier brain scans were done.

edit - I didn't find discussion on the UK one, but an Australian study found those with some health concerns were more likely to accept the invitation. Not surprising.

Re: Brain imaging before and after Covid-19 in UK Biobank

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you weren't aware, you're shadow-banned. You've been commenting into the void for over a year.

His post history looks fine and readable to me.

Here is the exact moment it happened:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17549790

Almost exactly three years ago, on July 17, 2018.

He/she/it was informed about the banning, but didn't understand it (or missed the comment) and has kept posting for three years. (Mostly a string of the same, characteristic one-liner quips.)

Re: Brain imaging before and after Covid-19 in UK Biobank

#25

> And while our results were not significant So what does this mean, need more research?

Out of context much? From the abstract: > We identified significant effects of COVID-19 in the brain with a loss of grey matter in the left parahippocampal gyrus, the left lateral orbitofrontal cortex and the left insula. When looking over the entire cortical surface, these results extended to the anterior cingulate cortex, supramarginal gyrus and temporal pole. We further compared COVID-19 patients who had been hosp…

You can find anything if your research isn't significant?

Re: Brain imaging before and after Covid-19 in UK Biobank

#26
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there some reason to expect that covid-19 is different in long term effects than a flu? This study is saying it causes substantial brain damage, right? What possible mechanism is there for this?

Lots of diseases result in nerve damage. Polio was famous for this, after all. Different viruses infect different tissues. This is why we don't like getting sick, and push vaccines where we can. Infectious diseases that don't have long term effects are actually comparatively few in numbers -- those are the ones we tend to "get sick" with, for the simple reason that they aren't worth the effort of trying to control. T…

> Everyone knew from that first cluster in Wuhan that this was much, much more dangerous. Everyone told you that. Everyone trustworthy, anyway.

I hope you find the CDC to be trustworthy because the CDC says on their website that the flu is more dangerous than covid for young people.

"For young children, especially children younger than 5 years old, the risk of serious complications is higher for flu compared with COVID-19."

"However, for adolescents, the risk of serious COVID-19 illness is less than in children younger than 5."

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/symptoms/flu-vs-covid19.htm

I agree with you that there are people who cavalierly dismiss the dangers of covid. But there are also people who oversell and exaggerate the dangers as well. Both are doing a disservice to people and society in general in my opinion.

Perhaps you meant covid is much more dangerous to some portions of the population while the flu was more dangerous to other portions of the population? Though I guess things could change in the future with more data and information.

Re: Brain imaging before and after Covid-19 in UK Biobank

#27
If you lose smell, then the brain will shift smell-related resources to other functions.

Any large-scale body damage should cause "brain damage," though it's possibly a little misleading to call it that (of course I'm not enough of a neuroscientist to know if that's all that's at play here).

related: https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/a-new-theory-of-dreami...

Re: Brain imaging before and after Covid-19 in UK Biobank

#28

Quote from https://apnews.com/article/health-coronavirus-pandemic-79959... "Citing new information about the variant’s ability to spread among vaccinated people , the CDC also recommended indoor masks for all teachers, staff, students and visitors at schools nationwide, regardless of vaccination status." If someone is vaccinated AND still spreading the virus, is it any different from having an asymthomatic case of CO…

As far as I'm aware, the answers to these questions is currently not known.

Re: Brain imaging before and after Covid-19 in UK Biobank

#29

Quote from https://apnews.com/article/health-coronavirus-pandemic-79959... "Citing new information about the variant’s ability to spread among vaccinated people , the CDC also recommended indoor masks for all teachers, staff, students and visitors at schools nationwide, regardless of vaccination status." If someone is vaccinated AND still spreading the virus, is it any different from having an asymthomatic case of CO…

> If someone is vaccinated AND still spreading the virus, is it any different from having an asymthomatic case of COVID?

It carries about an order of magnitude lower risk of hospitalization or death, so... yes. Yes, it is very different. We don't know about long term effects, those are, y'know, long term and hard to study in this kind of timeframe. Which is why the linked article is notable.

Also note that risk of transmission is about 10x lower (vs. delta, better vs. the older variants) for the vaccinated. So even if they're just as likely to see long term CNS issues from infection they're vastly less likely to be infected in the first place.

I don't think this article changes the vaccine calculus at all. Get your shot. It's your best protection against everything to do with covid.

Re: Brain imaging before and after Covid-19 in UK Biobank

#30
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of diseases result in nerve damage. Polio was famous for this, after all. Different viruses infect different tissues. This is why we don't like getting sick, and push vaccines where we can. Infectious diseases that don't have long term effects are actually comparatively few in numbers -- those are the ones we tend to "get sick" with, for the simple reason that they aren't worth the effort of trying to control. T…

> Everyone knew from that first cluster in Wuhan that this was much, much more dangerous. Everyone told you that. Everyone trustworthy, anyway. I hope you find the CDC to be trustworthy because the CDC says on their website that the flu is more dangerous than covid for young people. "For young children, especially children younger than 5 years old, the risk of serious complications is higher for flu compared with COV…

> I agree with you that there are people who cavalierly dismiss the dangers of covid.

Don't call it the flu. It's not the flu. It's killed 20x more people than the flu even in the fact of pervasive society-changing mitigation strategies (all while the flu itself has all but gone extinct, remember! All that masking and distance learning actually worked!). It's not the flu.

Beyond that, nitpick with my phrasing all you like. This is HN, after all.

It's not the flu.

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