Researchers from King’s looked at whether infection with COVID-19 affected performance in two rounds of online cognitive testing that took place in 2021 and 2022. Data was collected for over 3,000 participants of the COVID Symptom Study Biobank study, across 12 tasks that tested memory, attention, reasoning, processing speed and motor control.
The participants whose test scores were most affected by COVID-19 were those who had experienced symptoms related to the virus for 12 weeks or more. In these people, the effect of COVID-19 on test accuracy was comparable in size to the effect of a 10-year increase in age.
There was no significant improvement in these test scores between the two rounds of testing, which took place nine months apart. By the second round of testing, the average time since participants’ initial COVID-19 infection was almost two years.
Digging deeper into the analysis, the researchers separated participants by whether they felt fully recovered following COVID-19 infection. People who felt fully recovered after COVID-19 infection performed similarly to those who had not had the virus at all. In contrast, participants who did not feel fully recovered after infection had lower task accuracy scores on average.
Lead author Dr Nathan Cheetham, a Senior Postdoctoral Data Scientist at King’s College London said:
“Our findings suggest that, for people who were living with long-term symptoms after having COVID-19, the effects of the coronavirus on mental processes such as the ability to recall words and shapes are still detectable at an average of almost two years since their initial infection.
“However, the result that COVID had no effect on performance in our tests for people who felt fully recovered, even if they’d had symptoms for several months and could be considered as experiencing ‘long COVID’, was good news. This study shows the need to monitor those people whose brain function is most affected by COVID-19, to see how their cognitive symptoms continue to develop and provide support towards recovery.”
I think you’re being a little unfair. Not everybody caught COVID intentionally. There was a shortage of PPE, there was unclear messaging about how it spread, then if you were wearing a cloth mask suddenly it wasn’t good enough for omicron but you still couldn’t get better masks. At this point it’s somewhere in the range of top 5 most contagious diseases known to man and even being vaccinated multiple times won’t stop you from getting it. You could have worn the best mask available to you this entire time and leaving the house one time over the last 3 years would still out you ar risk. Short of being a shutin forever, what would you have people actually do?
Also, not everyone had the option of staying in. That was a benefit reserved for the privileged few. At least in America, the lack of government support meant that lots of people had to choose between starving to death or potentially catching a (probably non-lethal) disease. Hell, there weren’t even regulations passed regarding the right to work from home, so it was entirely at the employer’s discretion if you got to stay home.
My employer mandated that every worker was essential, and had everyone continue coming into work. On the one hand, it was nice having a solid 40 hours straight through the pandemic. I never had to deal with the unemployment BS. On the other, it meant I was constantly seeing my office mates and couldn’t properly isolate. Hell, the same job one city over let everyone go home for two full years and paid them a fucking full salary the entire time. That could have been my job too, but due to differing leadership I had to continue going to work every single day.
I was not referring to everyone. I specifically stated people who refused to take precautions. I know enough people, who refused to ever wear a mask, or change any habits (like washing their hands when they came home) who now have long covid, and whine like they didn’t make a conscious choice.
Maybe America shouldn’t have declared COVID over when it was at its peak because they were “tired of wearing masks”?
I still wear my mask because COVID is still around. Never caught it. I have always properly worn it, wear it every time no exceptions, and be sure to properly wash my hands as well as wipe down my groceries and everything else that enters my home.
My girlfriend and I are the only two people we know that has not gotten COVID.
The amount of people I see who claim they wear their mask all the time but then post Instagram photos of them hanging out with people is too damn high. Just because they are friends or family doesn’t mean they can’t spread COVID to you lmao.
I also haven’t gotten Covid, nor has my husband. We even traveled, by plane, in 2020.
Personally, I haven’t been wearing a mask during summertime, but once fall/winter come back around, I absolutely will. Yes, it’s a risk, but it’s calculated. Sure it may bite me in the ass.
Agreed. I worked in retail during that and my wife in healthcare. Both of us had grown a vast network of connections and quitting wasn’t really a smart decision. Also, it was either quit our jobs that supported our family or risk COVID daily. Guess which one we went with.
Eventually we both fell ill with COVID. Luckily, it only dulled my sense of smell. My wife never presented long term symptoms that we know of.