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Covid infections are causing IQ drops and years of brain aging, studies suggest

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Re: Covid infections are causing IQ drops and years of brain aging, studies suggest

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK ONS data used to have the obvious flaw that people dropping dead 3 days after their first dose were defined as „unvaccinated“. In this regard, the significant uptick in deaths in summer 2021 in „unvaccinated“ looked interesting to say the least. How are they doing their definitions now? Could not find it. Meanwhile this new Dutch data looks quite interesting, maybe someone here would like to give it a shot: ht…

The Dutch data has the same problem as the ONS data that I describe in my other comment: > For the first mRNA vaccination, almost all [hazard ratios], for the different weeks after vaccination and different subgroups, are significantly lower than 1, which indicates a reduced risk of non-COVID-19 death shortly after vaccination. Obviously vaccination is not supposed to reduce your risk from things unrelated to COVID-1…

Thank you for this summary. I have seen some analyses (including from the „pro vax“ side, even though it is to be despised for their fascist behavior alone) that made the Dutch data appear more useful for these questions. But tbh, what did I expect - last time I checked the Dutch government still voted against doing an honest investigation into the ongoing excess deaths too.

Is there any official data of this kind you would trust right now?

To be fair, I have seen enough by now; the main open question for me is what role endemic covid in all those believing the cure-all narrative and going out partying before milder variants came out played.

Re: Covid infections are causing IQ drops and years of brain aging, studies suggest

#212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, in that case, good that Australia isn't the only country in the world: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde... which clearly shows that all-cause deaths in England were higher among the unvaccinated. Here is a Reuters fact check: https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/no-evidence-link-uk-exces...

The ONS data cannot be used that way unfortunately, and the ONS themselves have admitted to that fact. If you take the ONS data literally then COVID vaccines are a magical elixir of luck that protect against every cause of death including car crashes. There are at least two problems: 1. The statistically invalid time-windowing games the public health agencies all played in which people who had taken vaccines were cla…

We are not talking about vaccine efficiency or efficacy here though but adverse events specifically.

>If we check the data for say the Pfizer trial, what we see is no effect on mortality

The point is that there are almost no serious adverse events occuring post-vaccination. There is no pharmacovigilance safety signal or concerning pattern wrt MRNA-vaccines. As we have seen in 2021 with the astra zeneca vaccine, post market surveillance worked and it was promptly investigated as soon as a safety signal emerged. EMA (and other regulatory agencies) communicated transparently about their findings and decisions.

Thank you for reminding me of this fine example of post-market surveillance, I almost forgot :)

Re: Covid infections are causing IQ drops and years of brain aging, studies suggest

#213
post #35

The title is misleading, at least on the IQ claim. The underlying study was observational and did not claim causation. Medical journals and their associated media summaries are awash with low-certainty studies that get de-nuanced and overhyped. These studies are relatively easy to do - not to denigrate the work put in by the original study authors (it’s not their fault the press sensationalize their work). But for st…

It's less misleading then you might think. There are cases (enough to not be treated as just some random coincidence; with and without vaccination) where people after Covid had a sever reduction of cognitive abilities that they have problems filling out relatively simple forms. So we can clearly speak of a reduction of IQ. And while there is a lot of research needed and a lot of open questions and already half a year…

Seconding the sentiment here. Quibbling about "causal" being used in the title aside, we're building more observational evidence that there's negative cognitive effects associated with covid and long covid.

Zhao et al '24 [0] comes immediately to mind; operating on a radically different set of people and data sets from Al-Aly and the gang, they find substantial differences in simple reaction time between covid and no-covid groups.

It seems we're in a phase of the pandemic where denying long tail effects is going to become more prominent as concerning evidence continues to pile up. The name of the game is still to reduce your infection count as much as possible. Stay safe out there, share aerosols unprotected at your own peril.

[0] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5... "Long COVID is associated with severe cognitive slowing: a multicentre cross-sectional study"

Re: Covid infections are causing IQ drops and years of brain aging, studies suggest

#215
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Australia has a population of 26 million, longer life expectancy than the USofA, and comprehensive medical records going back many decades. With ~98% of the population COVID vaccinated multiple times any vaccine effects would stick out like dogs balls. If anyone wants to posit "vaccines cause { stupid | strokes | etc }" Then such correlations should be readily apparent in the before | after records of 26 million test…

Mortality of productive population 15-44 still rising after 2021 in EU. https://euromomo.eu

Could also be: delayed checkups, e.g. blood pressure, cancer. Delayed treatment. Other transmittable diseases, for example novel flu variants. But no, it has to be the vaccine.

Re: Covid infections are causing IQ drops and years of brain aging, studies suggest

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you working in the cellar at home? Why would you have less vitamin D working from home than say, an office?

Even just 15 mins in the sun helps vitamin D levels so walking from the house to the car into the office and back again is enough to make a difference compared to not going out at all, no?

Depends upon what latitude you live at.

Where I am, the sun isn't strong enough to trigger synthesis from October until the end of April.

After that you need a lot of skin exposed to get anything, which is difficult 'cos it ain't that warm.

There is a reason red hair appeared in Southern Scotland/Northern Ireland.

Re: Covid infections are causing IQ drops and years of brain aging, studies suggest

#217
post #35

The title is misleading, at least on the IQ claim. The underlying study was observational and did not claim causation. Medical journals and their associated media summaries are awash with low-certainty studies that get de-nuanced and overhyped. These studies are relatively easy to do - not to denigrate the work put in by the original study authors (it’s not their fault the press sensationalize their work). But for st…

[flagged]

Although, significant increase in CO2 concentrations are noted with routinely used face-masks, the levels still remain within the NIOSH limits for short-term use. Therefore, there should not be a concern in their regular day-to-day use by people.

https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s128...

Re: Covid infections are causing IQ drops and years of brain aging, studies suggest

#218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who says there’s even anything stable to measure? If “intelligence” is just the degree/quality of someone’s brain function then your intelligence does drop when your brain function is impaired, and you would expect that to be picked up in an intelligence test. Culturally we may want to imagine intelligence as something constant and innate to somebody’s soul, but in reality it’s innate to a fragile and fickle organ in…

> Culturally we may want to imagine intelligence as something constant and innate to somebody’s soul, but in reality it’s innate to a fragile and fickle organ inside your skull. Which is also my issue with IQ tests and the relationship of the tests and what they measure. But that changes nothing: IQ tests are not supposed to measure _that_ variability of when you get sick. Or you wake up. Or you are drunk. It makes n…

One of the major uses of IQ tests is to measure brain damage, otherwise why would they be mostly calibrated in the downwards direction? Who do you think pays for these things?

Re: Covid infections are causing IQ drops and years of brain aging, studies suggest

#219

My wife has postcovid and this is a profound effect. Yesterday she tried to add up a series of numbers by heart, and she simply couldn’t. For context, she’s pretty mathy and used to mock me for taking out a calculator or a spreadsheet for stuff like that. She also forgets everything, which is another thing she used to be great at. It’s pretty confronting, especially now that the idea that maybe this isn’t temporary i…

There is an interesting paper (the main author seems to be from Netherlands, too) about potential mechanism of action that makes Covid infections have long-term repercussions published last year at https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.....

> Based on these data, we hypothesize that the shift to anaerobic respiration causes an acid-base disruption that can affect every organ system and underpins the symptoms of PASC.

(Brain, of course, is also an organ, so brain fog and reduction in mental capabilities could easily fall under this.)

Re: Covid infections are causing IQ drops and years of brain aging, studies suggest

#220
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Woa this is a great thing to hear actually. She got sick January 2022 so a bit over 2 years now. Our current fear is that this is the kind of thing where either you recover within ~2 years or it’s forever. Appreciate your story and will share with her. Her other symptoms, particularly the fatigue, do seem to improve (though the weather and being about to be outside impacts it a lot, so she had a huge setback 2 winter…

Weather impact on mood and energy is unbelievable, at least in myself. Also, if that can help, contrary to my previous beliefs, light therapy is no bullshit. I thought it was another pseudo science but studies are in fact proving that it’s incredibly effective (but it’s pretty inconvenient to incorporate in your habits).

what sort of light therapy have you found beneficial? Like blue light in the eyes or red light on the skin?
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