People are mainly thinking about lungs with COVID-19, but the virus may be capable of shutting down your breathing through infecting the neurons in your brain. It is able to do this because it's a neurotropic virus. That means it invades and spreads through your nerve tissue.
It enters through receptors in your lungs into the brainstem where the cardiorespiratory centre is- the part of your brain that regulates your blood pressure and breathing. This may explain why some patients experience respiratory failure despite having little viral infection in their lungs.
Here comes another issue with herd immunity that I don’t see many people discussing.
Viruses that invade nerve tissue have been implicated in long term health conditions. If COVID-19 is allowed to spread through most of the population, I predict there to be a tidal wave of chronic illness. Not only reduced lung function as I have seen being mentioned, but also diseases such as myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.
Neurotropic viruses are also able to lay dormant and possibly reactivate (chickenpox definitely does but others may as well). Some viral infections may never completely clear. Scientists are not sure whether this is due to viral reactivation, or the virus triggering a permanent altered state in areas of metabolic processes, immunity and neurological functioning.
No one knows if this will happen to COVID-19 patients, but if we look at longitudinal studies of SARS patients, it’s not encouraging. There are long term health problems in a small but significant percentage. Not just breathing issues, but anxiety, depression and fatigue years after they had recovered. Any infection can trigger long-term effects of course. However bacteria, viruses and proteins that are neurotropic can overcome neural barriers and get inside your central nervous system. It's scary when you think about it.
It enters through receptors in your lungs into the brainstem where the cardiorespiratory centre is- the part of your brain that regulates your blood pressure and breathing. This may explain why some patients experience respiratory failure despite having little viral infection in their lungs.
Here comes another issue with herd immunity that I don’t see many people discussing.
Viruses that invade nerve tissue have been implicated in long term health conditions. If COVID-19 is allowed to spread through most of the population, I predict there to be a tidal wave of chronic illness. Not only reduced lung function as I have seen being mentioned, but also diseases such as myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.
Neurotropic viruses are also able to lay dormant and possibly reactivate (chickenpox definitely does but others may as well). Some viral infections may never completely clear. Scientists are not sure whether this is due to viral reactivation, or the virus triggering a permanent altered state in areas of metabolic processes, immunity and neurological functioning.
No one knows if this will happen to COVID-19 patients, but if we look at longitudinal studies of SARS patients, it’s not encouraging. There are long term health problems in a small but significant percentage. Not just breathing issues, but anxiety, depression and fatigue years after they had recovered. Any infection can trigger long-term effects of course. However bacteria, viruses and proteins that are neurotropic can overcome neural barriers and get inside your central nervous system. It's scary when you think about it.
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