Covid causes cognitive impairment

olitics is a way of simplifying the world by dividing people into two opposing groups so that every problem can be blamed on the other side. It appeals to our lower-brain animal programming about competing predator species, which could be why as our collective planetwide IQ declines, the population becomes ever more politically polarized.

Since the pandemic, this politicization has gotten worse. But what is causing it? One possibility is Covid-induced cognitive impairment. The Covid pandemic killed many people—the exact number may never be known—but it may turn out that the worst aspect of Covid is its effect on the brain. Not every problem is caused by cognitive impairment, of course, but existing problems would be prolonged, politicized, and worsened by it.

There's no question that Covid causes cognitive impairment. Covid has been suggested as a trigger for Alzheimer's, but there's a big debate as to how it works and whether the virus attacks neurons directly or indirectly.

Cytokine sturm und drang

Cytokines are part of our natural response to any infection and bacterial and viral toxins. During a ‘cytokine storm’ they can even be life-threatening. But even during an ordinary infection, inflammatory cytokines are transported across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and can impair brain function. Cytokines can also disrupt the BBB, allowing other toxins to enter. This happens, for instance, in cancer chemotherapy, where the disrupted BBB allows the neurotoxic chemotherapeutic agents to reach the brain, causing cognitive impairment that may be permanent. Breakdown of the BBB is practically synonymous with cognitive impairment ^[1,2,3], as I warned some people who were trying to break it down with sound waves in the belief that it would benefit Alzheimer patients. Of course, it didn't.

People might not recognize the symptoms, attributing them to stress, tiredness, or other factors. But children's IQs are apparently decreasing ^[4]. The effects are everywhere: in our embarrassing culture; at NIH, which now wants scientists to study inequity of health care instead of curing diseases; and in the goofball stunts of politicians as they systematically trash the economy to avert a ‘climate crisis’ created by agenda-driven government funding of science. Newly graduated doctors, schooled in the art of imagining discrimination, are now so incompetent that faculty at one medical school I'm familiar with refuse to get treatment at their own hospital and go across town to a professional center instead. But how does Covid contribute to this?

Tippecanoe and TLR4 too

A recent paper in Cell Reports ^[5] from researchers in Brazil gives us a clue. The authors found that infusing the Covid spike protein into the brains of mice causes long-term cognitive dysfunction. Human patients with a G2604A DNA mutation in TLR4, a brain pattern recognition protein important in the innate immune response, experienced particularly poor cognitive outcome after Covid.

The spike protein, as we all know, is released by the Covid virus and is expressed on cells at very high levels by the Covid mRNA vaccine. TLR4 is a receptor in the microglia, the immune cells of the brain, that induces cytokine expression via a transcription factor called NF-kappaB. So in summary, cognitive impairment after Covid can happen in at least four ways:

• Disruption of the BBB from peripheral inflammatory cytokines

• Cytokines crossing the BBB and entering the brain by normal transport

• Activation of TLR4 by spike protein

• Direct infection of the CNS ^[6]

The authors write:

We demonstrated that cognitive impairment induced by Spike protein is associated with hippocampal C1q upregulation and microglial engulfment of pre-synaptic terminals. Additionally, chronic C1q neutralization preserved memory function in Spike-infused mice, supporting a role of C1q-mediated synaptic pruning as an important mediator of post-COVID-19 cognitive impairment.

‘C1q upregulation’ means the complement system is activated. ‘Neutralizing’ C1q means they injected an anti-C1q antibody into the brain to prove that C1q was involved. The complement system is part of the innate immune system. When a cell is tagged or “opsonized,” the complement system activates C1q, which triggers a cascade of protein changes, much like those in blood coagulation, that create a killer protein complex that literally punches holes in cells, killing them. TLR4 activates the microglia, which then attack synapses and neurons, inducing depression and cognitive impairment.

Vax programming

This is particularly concerning for those who received the vax+booster, which is now known to increase the risk of acquiring Covid, which is to say its efficacy is below zero, at least for recent strains.

The authors proposed to treat it by pharmacologically blocking TLR4, but this would cause immuno­deficiency, which is already significant among Covid patients ^[7] and vaxxed patients ^[8]. A more accurate term would be immunodepletion due to the large amounts of highly immunoreactive Spike protein. The idea of immunodepletion by Spike protein has been met with significant resistance and denialism by public health officials who believe that spreading knowledge of it would promote vaccine hesitancy, but the evidence suggests it is real.

This means that while Covid-induced cognitive impairment will not affect everybody, there are certain populations that are highly susceptible to it. The size of these populations remains to be determined.

Of course not every act of stupidity can be ascribed to Covid. The humans need no help in committing those. But there may be a “tipping point” on these things, after which society undergoes a phase transition to a state of increased disorder, much as ice melts when it reaches a certain temperature, and every additional bit of cognitive impairment pushes humans a little closer to it.

apr 08 2023, 6:28 am