An analysis of people who were hospitalised with covid-19 in the first wave of the pandemic has revealed that the ongoing decline in their cognitive abilities is the equivalent to losing 10 IQ points

An analysis of people who were hospitalised with covid-19 in the first wave of the pandemic has revealed that the ongoing decline in their cognitive abilities is the equivalent to losing 10 IQ points

The cognitive abilities of people who were hospitalised with covid-19 during the first wave of the pandemic remain lower than expected, even years later, and there is some evidence that this is forcing them to change jobs.

“What we found is that the average cognitive deficit was equivalent to 10 IQ points, based on what would be expected for their age, et cetera,” says Maxime Taquet at the University of Oxford.

  • cashmaggot@piefed.social
    3·
    5 months ago

    TADA! I think I read somewhere that Covid affects the brain akin to dimentia or something like that. I don’t remember the science behind it, and it was just the beginnings of the findings and I am sure that things are clearer now (a couple of years after I had read that). But I have had Covid an uncomfortable amount of times. My gal was one of the first to bring it home in the US as far as I heard it. Everyone where she was working just kept coming down with this “nasty cold” or somethingerother. They literally threw us into isolation shortly after. But I remember moments when we were just laying together in bed, sleeping our asses off and I would think “are we breathing? Am I breathing?” But I think it scrambled our brains like eggs. And we got through it. I think we came back pretty well the first time. The second time, we did alright. Still nothing long-term that seemed to be terribly messed up. By the third, I think my thoughts just decided to leave the building. I still forget whole words. They just vanish. And I get to play the world’s worst guessing game. And it never got better, and at first it really upset me but now I have a real “It is what it is” kinda vibe to it, because I can’t seemingly change it soooooo…

    • Rexios@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      5 months ago

      The forgetting words thing is awful. Thank god for ChatGPT or else I would never be able to remember them.

      • cashmaggot@piefed.social
        2·
        5 months ago

        Hey, I never thought about that. I just stumble and toss our a bunch of words that I can think of that are akin to xyz and then have others become my breathing thesaurus until we arrive that that word that means __ that starts with an m. It’s actually kindaaa fun in a way, because we get to problem solve as a micro-unit for two seconds and as someone who’s truly, truly, truly spastic it’s a nice little brain-break/aside.