I have had COVID at least 3 times (I'm an advocate masks, but I live where masks are not a pop6choice,) and I swear my brain function has plummeted since my first infection. I feel so dumb at times because my memory has went to shit, I can't think of simple words, comprehend simple questions or solve simple problems. It's like having writers block but it affects all my thinking abilities.

My dad is anti-mask and his mental function has suffered greatly. During his first infection, he would ask the same question multiple times in a single conversation, and although he's better now, he's not the same as he was.

My symptoms during consequent infections after the first were not bad, in fact I wouldn't have guessed I was sick at all the 2nd or 3rd time, so I have no idea if I've had it more...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I wonder if we'd see a mass dumbing effect evident in IQ or IQ equivalent testing such as SAT.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I'd participate in that study if it existed

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Same with a lot of other health problems. We've had so many people who have gotten it, many of whom probably didn't think much of it at the time or didn't even know they'd been infected. That's pretty likely to have population-level impacts.

We know it can affect cognition and increase risks for a variety of health concerns, but somehow the idea that those individually-recognized issues might start showing up in population-wide trends doesn't seem to cross people's minds. Instead we get stories wondering about why everyone's gotten angrier, or worse at driving, or why younger people are having heart attacks. Certainly those things could have entirely unrelated causes, but the idea that it's actually mass infection with COVID isn't even brought up and then rejected, it's simply ignored.