“COVID-19 Can Affect the Brain. New Clues Hint at How.”

Annabelle Krause

5/4/21

AP Bio

Current Event 21

Sanders, Laura. “COVID-19 Can Affect the Brain. New Clues Hint at How.” Science News, 26 

Apr. 2021, https://www.sciencenews.org/article/covid-brain-coronavirus-symptom-stroke-anxiety-depression. 

In the article, “COVID-19 Can Affect the Brain. New Clues Hint at How,” Sanders discusses what is colloquially known as long COVID, or the long term symptoms and effects of COVID-19.  She begins with the short-term brain-related symptoms “the loss of smell … headaches, confusion, hallucinations and delirium … depression, anxiety and sleep problems.”  This emphasizes that we know that COVID-19 impacts the brain.  However, she further states that “Researchers are still trying to figure out how many people experience these psychiatric or neurological problems, who is most at risk, and how long such symptoms might last.” Very little is known at this point since COVID-19 is so new, and Elyse Singer, a neurologist at UCLA, notes that “It’s going to take us years to tease this apart.”  There are studies going on currently in order to try and understand long COVID and its effect on the brain.  One such study found that “one in three people had experienced a psychiatric or neurological diagnosis” based on the health records of “more than 236,000 COVID-19 survivors.” Although this is definitely noteworthy, the researchers have only proven correlation, not causation.  Most of the diagnoses were for “depression and anxiety, ‘disorders that are extremely common in the general population already,’ points out Jonathan Rogers, a psychiatrist at University College London.”  Beyond that, “About 1 in 50 people with COVID-19 had a stroke” and with those who reported other brain-related symptoms “1 in 11 had strokes.”  Despite early worries, researchers are pretty sure that the virus does not directly affect the brain.  However, it does affect the brain, possibly through blood vessels.  Avindra Nath, a neurologist who studies central nervous system infections at the NIH, found small clots in blood vessels, thick and inflamed walls of vessels, and blood leaking from vessels into brain tissue.  Nath concluded that all of these factors could have contributed to long COVID brain damage.  A last possible reason for long COVID brain damage is inflammation.  Emily Troyer, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Diego, cautioned that “We … know that COVID causes inflammation, and inflammation has the potential to disrupt neurotransmission, particularly in the case of depression.”  Overall, there are many possible justifications for long COVID brain damage, and it is unclear what exactly is the cause, or if long COVID is causing psychological damage.

This is extremely relevant to our lives.  As time progresses, long COVID will become more and more prevalent.  It is important to understand all of the risks of COVID, as well as understand the root of these risks.  As doctors begin to decipher the causes of long COVID, they will be better equipped to treat it and help society move past COVID.  As citizens, it is integral that we continue to be diligent to avoid long COVID and further spreading COVID.  It is more than likely that we will continue to grapple with COVID and its effects for many years, so we must research and understand it.

The article was very clear and was not overly complicated. The author cited many different studies and scientists, which made her article much more convincing and gave her legitimacy. It was also helpful that she explained a rebuttal to each of her assertions at the end of each subsection. This made it clear how little is known about COVID and long COVID. However, I do believe that the author took on too many theories with one article. It would have been easier for me as a reader to fully digest the knowledge she was sharing if she had chosen one idea, such as inflammation causing long COVID, and only focused on it. That would have greatly improved my overall understanding and deepened my understanding of one area, which I believe would be more useful.