Inside STAT: After Covid-19 infection, neurological effects can linger

JOHN BONFIGLIO FEELS LUCKY TO HAVE RECOVERED FROM COVID-19 WITHOUT LONG-TERM SIDE EFFECTS. (KAYANA SZYMCZAK FOR STAT)

Early on, patients with both mild and severe Covid-19 illness say at first they can’t breathe. Now, after recovering, some of them say they can’t think. Even people who were never sick enough to go to a hospital, much less lie in an ICU bed with a ventilator, report feeling something as ill-defined as “Covid fog” or as frightening as numbed limbs. As many as 1 in 3 patients recovering from Covid-19 could carry with them neurological or psychological after-effects, experts tell STAT’s Elizabeth Cooney, reflecting a growing consensus that the disease can have lasting impact on the brain. “The problem for these people is not over when they leave the hospital,” said Wes Ely, a pulmonologist and critical care physician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.