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/MonkAndCanatella Feb 03 '25

it'll be seen as as bad if not worse than aids mark my words

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u/RubiiJee Feb 04 '25

I think that's a tad extreme. It was a bad pandemic, but it was handled relatively well in comparison to AIDS, which was ignored for years and then blamed on gays, causing a decade plus of homophobic abuse. So bad it made its way into legislation. I hope and pray nothing is as bad as AIDS, but it became so horrifically linked due to media, government and public stigma. AIDS continues to be a death sentence to this day. COVID is survivable. I don't think the two are remotely comparable.

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u/MonkAndCanatella Feb 04 '25

AIDS continues to be a death sentence to this day. COVID is survivable.

both of these are relatively contextual at this point - AIDS can be reversed, and COVID can kill.

And there's been nonstop propaganda to make covid a moral or genetic failure very similar to the playbook they used on aids. There's a lot of "only ____ people die from or get long covid"

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u/RubiiJee Feb 04 '25

AIDS can be reversed, but not cured. Not yet anyway, although promising trials. I don't believe there's non stop propaganda around COVID. There were literally television adverts and pamphlets posted through your door about the risk of AIDS and it was regular front page headlines about it for years and years. COVID suffered misinformation, and I agree, similarly, some denial. But not to the same extent for the same duration of time.

I think COVID is bad, but I think it lacks perspective to compare it to the societal damage that the AIDS pandemic had. I would argue COVID is more like Spanish Flu, and unlike AIDS, has the chance to decimate large swaths of the population over an extended period of time. I think the dangers are extremely different and we should be mindful of that when we discuss them. AIDS should stay in a category of its own as it was a disease propagated through transmission as well as discrimination.

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u/zekeweasel Feb 04 '25

HIV is a lot more... well it's entirely avoidable.

I think that is the most glaring difference.

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u/MonkAndCanatella Feb 04 '25

Well... yes, and covid is too if you're going to be pedantic about it (mask up!). It's certainly orders of magnitudes easier to contract covid though. I mean, it'd be hard to catch HIV by riding the bus, unlike covid.