
Cerebral Micro-Structural Changes in Covid-19 Patients - seesawtron
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30228-5/fulltext
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coldcode
Every time there is a discussion on Covid on HN, an army of trolls come out to
pooh pooh everything. We are supposed to be better than Reddit here. It's
about discussion not dissing. You don't have to agree with everything, but you
also should not be ruining the thoughtful discussion.

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NiceWayToDoIT
I am reading these negative neural impacts ranging from bad to worse, and I
cannot help but think, how come there is not something in nature, a virus or
bacteria, on the whole planet that can do something good? I do not know help
boosting confidence, making people happier, increasing cognitive abilities,
maybe improving your sense of smell or direction, gain muscle... at least
something, instead it is always a very long list of destruction. Sorry guys, I
am trying to offset, reading this paper made me depressive.

EDIT: After reading all the answers, I remember a quote, probably answer to my
question. It is not possible because we are very complex organism, and
regardless how some virus or tiny bug can find flaws in our complexity, in the
same way as randomly injected piece of code cannot improve application, the
same way, is an equal chance that a virus will introduce positive change in
our genome which will improve parameters we desire.

Quote was Hoyle's Fallacy used for something completely different: "the chance
that a tornado sweeping through a junkyard might assemble a Boeing 747"

So it seems we need to wait for few million years or to really on marvel of
genetically engineering.

p.s. Thank you guys!

~~~
troughway
The intent behind most of this is to drive a constant sense of fear and worry
without any rational cooldown, so expect to be depressed among other things.

Until HN wakes up from fearmongering and "doomscrolling", the beatings will
continue.

~~~
NiceWayToDoIT
It is scientific paper, not a daily news, my outcry was more as frustration
with the universe than fear from pandemic or economic impact.

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rpiguy
Vast majority of people recover just fine and what ever neurological
structural changes are caused by the virus appear to have very little affect.

The article claims that both non-severe and severe patients get the same
damage, meaning that globally we have at minimum 10 million people with this
damage, probably many time more since most cases aren't tested.

But the article does very little to study if these changes actually effect
people and for how long.

Evidence, as well as basic observation points to people recovering very well
from the disease (we have over 4 million cases in the US but the number of
people with crippling long-term effects is minimal, otherwise we'd be able to
observe a massive group of impaired individuals).

The article does very little to illustrate that impact on people.

For example, people who lose their sense of smell, which is listed as symptom
in this Chinese study get it back and they get it back faster than when they
lose the sense of smell with other viruses:

[https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/08/thousands...](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/08/thousands-
covid-19-patients-lost-sense-smell-will-get-back-cvd/)

~~~
francisofascii
> the number of people with crippling long-term effects is minimal

The thousands of of reported "long haulers" is troubling. While not crippling,
feeling tired and feverish every day for months does not sound pleasant. It
also raises awareness that viruses in general (not just Covid) could
potentially help explain long term lingering health issues.

~~~
mmmeff
I'm a long hauler. Caught COVID in March. Still suffering. 28 years old. AMA.

~~~
taigi100
How bad was your acute phase? Was it like a bad common cold or did you require
hospitalization? Also, what symptoms do persist and how bad would you say they
are? In what ways is your quality of life affected?

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yters
Combine such a capability with neuroscience and imagine the possibilities!

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creaghpatr
Remember, the Lancet is not a reliable source and has already gotten caught
fearmongering earlier this year:

[https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/04/lancet-retracts-major-
co...](https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/04/lancet-retracts-major-
covid-19-paper-that-raised-safety-concerns-about-malaria-drugs/)

~~~
DiogenesKynikos
Lancet is one of the foremost medical journals. Peer review does not filter
out 100% of bad papers.

For very understandable reasons, there's a huge pressure right now to get
information about CoVID-19 out to the public (and to the medical community)
quickly. That means that more bad papers are going to slip through right now.

But what's the alternative? Would you rather that critical results about
CoVID-19 be withheld for longer, in order to more thoroughly vet results?
That's reasonable, but it involves a trade-off, and the Lancet would no doubt
face criticism in the opposite direction if they withheld papers for longer.

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ghthor
Except when the hypothesis is that COVID and millimeter wave radiation might
be linked, that information is ruthlessly censoring by the publishing powers.

~~~
krapp
Because it's not a hypothesis, it's a nonsense conspiracy theory and of course
medical journals will refuse to publish it.

If people want that "information" its free for the taking on reddit, 4chan and
facebook memes.

~~~
ghthor
If you think this is a conspiracy theory then I doubt you understand much of
quantum theory and how photons interact with matter. This experiment were
running with millimeter waves is dangerous, and I've yet to see the research
that suggests otherwise. I just dont understand how others are not seeing
this, were moving far to quickly with our usage of photon manipulation
technologies and I dont see the justification for it.

~~~
solveit
Explain the spectral theorem for compact self-adjoint operators to me as if
I'm an undergrad and then I'll take you seriously.

