r/science • u/Wagamaga • Feb 03 '25

Neuroscience Scientists discover that even mild COVID-19 can alter brain proteins linked to Alzheimer’s disease, potentially increasing dementia risk—raising urgent public health concerns.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/260553/covid-19-linked-increase-biomarkers-abnormal-brain/
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u/GameDesignerDude Feb 03 '25

Sadly, I would say basically nothing?

A majority of the population got exposed during the pandemic. And even with the school shutdowns, we sent kids back with the mindset of "it's not serious in kids" so many kids have gotten it multiple times.

If there are serious long-term effects, the damage is probably already done. One of my great fears with kids going back to school without masks (in many places) and proper school health procedures was that we were running the risk of some long-term health consequences for an entire generation.

I'm hopeful it won't be the case, but nobody knew enough about it to rule it out at the time. The anti-masking stuff was just short-sighted and overly politicized.

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u/MonkAndCanatella Feb 03 '25 edited Feb 04 '25

the damage is probably already done

the damage is probably already done, and ongoing, continuing to pile up.

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u/GameDesignerDude Feb 03 '25

Sure, but my point is that realistically any measures at this phase is of comparatively minimal benefit.

Wastewater levels of viral activity over the holidays was about 1/3rd the peak of last year at the similar time of the year, and 1/5th of 2022.

Still something we will need to monitor and be aware of, but if there are any severe, long-term effects of COVID, the unfortunate reality is that a majority of people in the US have already gotten COVID by now--and probably multiple times at that. We had 2-3 years of extremely high transmission levels and lots of people with their heads in the sand about how to prevent it.

Any measures at this point will just need to be in trying to manage the damage that was done over that period of 2-3 years.

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u/MonkAndCanatella Feb 04 '25

Then your point is based on flawed logic and probably a bit of cope tbh. Additional infections make your chances of long covid and other negative long term consequences significantly higher. It's not like the only time those negatives can happen is after the primary infection

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u/GameDesignerDude Feb 04 '25

Not really sure what is "cope" about it. Chance of infections at this point is very significantly lower than before. The chance of additional and repeat infections would have been much, much higher in earlier years. That's just numbers.

Point is not that there isn't any risk any more at this stage, the point is that the risk for infections was so much higher between 2020-2023, and even last winter compared to now that trying to do anything in 2025 is like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted.

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u/MonkAndCanatella Feb 04 '25

Chance of infections at this point is very significantly lower than before.

Over a million contracting covid PER DAY in the last 6 months is not what I would call "significantly low". Unless your bar is in hell.

It's useless talking to people who are gonna cope so hard

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u/GameDesignerDude Feb 04 '25

You realize that "a million" can still be significantly lower than before right? Relative strength of the effect combined with vaccination creates a very different landscape than during the actual pandemic.

Not entirely sure what you're arguing though. Like if you don't think the risk is "significantly lower" than in 2022 or 2023, I don't know what to tell you. That is just a statistical fact.

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u/MonkAndCanatella Feb 04 '25

Alright buddy whatever you want, go nuts