I'm having like, an ongoing panic attack as I'm collating and compiling Brain & COVID research articles together.

Like chemobrain in some ways,

Like HIV associated neurocognitive decline in some ways,

Like Parkinson's in some ways,

Like Alzheimer's in some ways,

Like accelerated aging in some ways,

Like stroke in many ways,

AVOID.

COVID.

FOR FUCKS SAKE.

#COVID19 #COVID #CovidIsNotOver

@hannu_ikonen
One thing working against you is the prevailing conventional knowledge that once you've had a disease you are stronger- but which is, in the case of diseases that attack the immune system, quite wrong.
Having run the course of a disease like Covid or Measles, you may have lost the cells that gave you immunity from diseases you have been vaccinated for. This doesn't make you stronger, it makes you vulnerable and if anything, it underscores the importance of taking it seriously.
@lucifermorningstar i'm sorry if this is too forward of a request but do you perhaps know of some sources on where one could read more about this? people in my life keep clowning on me for deciding to vaccinate because "getting the disease naturally will strengthen the immune system more greatly" according to them 🤔 (the fact that i have a reputation as a health anxiety haver isn't helping my case either 😭)

@dangit
This is a good question, no apologies necessary.

This is a summary of a study that discusses how covid can cause immune responses that attack your own cells https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2021/09/covid-19-autoantibodies.html

Study links severe COVID-19 to increase in self-attacking antibodies

A study spearheaded by Stanford researchers indicates that at least 1 in 5 hospitalized COVID-19 patients develops new antibodies that attack their own tissue within a week of admission.

News Center
@dangit
One of the most-deadly things about covid from the start has been its interactions with your immune system- researchers recognized early on that cytokine storm reactions caused inflammation that exacerbated inflammation of lung (or other organ) tissue- and it was the immune response to the virus that killed a lot of people
https://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12985-022-01814-1#:~:text=COVID%2D19%20can%20trigger%20a,failure%20and%20death%20%5B3%5D.
COVID-19 infection: an overview on cytokine storm and related interventions - Virology Journal

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has posed a significant threat to global health. This virus affects the respiratory tract and usually leads to pneumonia in most patients and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in 15% of cases. ARDS is one of the leading causes of death in patients with COVID-19 and is mainly triggered by elevated levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, referred to as cytokine storm. Interleukins, such as interleukin-6 (1L-6), interleukin-1 (IL-1), interleukin-17 (IL-17), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) play a very significant role in lung damage in ARDS patients through the impairments of the respiratory epithelium. Cytokine storm is defined as acute overproduction and uncontrolled release of pro-inflammatory markers, both locally and systemically. The eradication of COVID-19 is currently practically impossible, and there is no specific treatment for critically ill patients with COVID-19; however, suppressing the inflammatory response may be a possible strategy. In light of this, we review the efficacy of specific inhibitors of IL6, IL1, IL-17, and TNF-α for treating COVID-19-related infections to manage COVID-19 and improve the survival rate for patients suffering from severe conditions. Graphical Abstract

BioMed Central

@dangit
More recent studies have revealed that it's worse than unregulated cytokine response: under some conditions your immune system begins producing antibodies that attack your own cells, too

https://magazine.ucsf.edu/your-immune-system-could-turn-covid-19-deadly

Your Immune System Could Turn COVID-19 Deadly

Hidden autoimmunity may explain how the coronavirus wreaks such widespread and unpredictable harm.

Your Immune System Could Turn COVID-19 Deadly | UCSF Magazine
@dangit
Here's a little more about how covid gives rise to immune/autoimmune dysfunction https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00149-1
Rogue antibodies could be driving severe COVID-19

Evidence is growing that self-attacking ‘autoantibodies’ could be the key to understanding some of the worst cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

@dangit
This is a very accessible (if long) explainer on how covid inhibits the interferon response to a viral attack but does nothing about cytokines
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/11/09/how-the-coronavirus-hacks-the-immune-system
How the Coronavirus Hacks the Immune System

At a laboratory in Manhattan, researchers have discovered how SARS-CoV-2 uses our defenses against us, James Somers writes.

The New Yorker
@dangit
This gets closer to the initial point I had to make: that being infected with covid exhausts your immune system particularly in addition to causing dysfunction in it
https://www.drugtargetreview.com/news/81320/t-cell-exhaustion-may-limit-long-term-immunity-in-covid-19-patients/
T-cell exhaustion may limit long-term immunity in COVID-19 patients

Study suggests patients with mild COVID-19 may not be able to fight reinfection very effectively because their CD8+ T cells show signs of exhaustion.

Drug Target Review

@dangit
This article discusses a related phenomenon called 'immune amnesia' whereby measles in particular exhausts and resets your immune system, causing it to 'forget' how to protect you from diseases you had immunity from (whether by surviving it, or being vaccinated for it)

https://time.com/5714159/measles-immune-amnesia/

Measles Makes Your Immune System Forget How to Fight Other Diseases

Measles wipes out the immune system, giving it "immune amnesia" and raising the risk of getting other infections, a new study says.

Time
@lucifermorningstar wow this is a lot of resources, i've yet to delve into it in detail (time to sleep now lol) but even points you've brought up in your posts make sence and have slightly improved my understanding of how covid works 🤔 thank you so much for taking the time to do this 😭 👍

@dangit
Rest well.
The bad news is that there's sooooo much more

for example, covid has been shown (like chicken pox) to permeate the blood-brain barrier, which means it could potentially (as chicken pox does) be resident there and recur with old age (as c.p. does, as 'shingles').

It's a novel virus, we're going to discover all sorts of new nightmares about this one- and for that matter, science is discovering a lot about how immunity works that complicates the old models.