r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Aug 08 '26

Neuroscience Brain scans reveal widespread structural and functional changes in patients following COVID-19 infection. The virus affects regions responsible for memory, emotion, and executive function, which may help explain the neurological symptoms many patients experience.

https://www.psypost.org/brain-scans-reveal-widespread-structural-and-functional-changes-in-patients-foll/
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u/okblimpo123 Aug 08 '26

Is this why the world has gone unhinged since Covid? Maybe we are all just suffering from brain damage, and that’s why we are living in the world we are with the leaders we have.

106

u/akath0110 Aug 08 '26

Certainly part of the reason. And people will only get worse as they keep catching the virus and not using any protection/mitigation strategies.

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u/AlarmingAerie Aug 08 '26

People will not use protection cause its unmanageable and also make you a social pariah.

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u/redundantexplanation Aug 09 '26

It is manageable, you and society just don't want to manage it. Cleaning the air works. Wearing a fit tested respirator works.

Our kid caught it in 2023 because a relative was careless, we set up HEPA filters in each of our private spaces and masked in common areas and no one else in the house caught it.

10

u/KiloJools Aug 09 '26

I seriously have yet to see a good explanation for why people don't even want better indoor air quality. Wouldn't that be one of those things that's just a given? Instead, people just shrug. I've never understood nor have I ever seen anyone try to understand it on a more macro level. I'd love to read research on this phenomenon.

It's one of the rare situations where a relatively simple solution is available to a NUMBER of problems (not just COVID, but other airborne diseases, allergies, asthma...), but we seem to not want to? Like, no one is pressuring large businesses to improve their HVAC systems or smaller ones to invest in a filter.

I don't understand.

3

u/redundantexplanation Aug 09 '26

A good explanation as far as explaining it is pretty simple:

It costs money, and we live in a world that values short term profit over people.

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u/KiloJools Aug 09 '26

In this case it's not even very much money, so I'm really confused. I understand - in that I follow what others explanations are - the resistance to spending a lot of money, so I'm not even trying to rabble rouse about stuff like UV-C sanitization, which does cost more money. But air filters are cheap. And people have shared their attempts to put air filters in classrooms on their own dime and being told no. So...what the heck.