COVID — Serious Cases & Serious Consequences

The University of Cambridge and Imperial College London just completed a frightening study. The two colleges predict that those who had severe cases of COVID could lose 20 years of life and an 10 point loss of IQ points.

The conclusion is frightening and is based on studying 46 patients who were in intensive care at Cambridge’s hospital between March and June of 2020. They took part in a study that researchers call a “custom computerized cognitive assessment battery.”

That assessment lasted 179 days and started as soon as a person contracted COVID-19 and wound up at the hospital.

“Participants who had been hospitalized due to COVID-19 scored significantly lower and were slower in their responses than would be expected given the control population,” the study concluded.

To be more specific, researchers said when it came to accuracy and the time it takes to process how to do a given task, the 46 participants showed a “consistent pattern of cognitive underperformance.”

Those needing mechanical ventilation fared the worst.

Study author, Adam Hampshire compared the patients impacted by COVID to normal cognitive decline in people aged 50 to 70. At best, the recovery the patients showed was, gradual.

“Tens of thousands of people have been through intensive care with COVID-19 in England alone and many more will have been very sick, but not admitted to hospital,” he said. “This means there are a large number of people out there still experiencing problems with cognition many months later. We urgently need to look at what can be done to help these people.”

Other health experts have came to conclusions similar to that of the Hampshire’s research team.

Source link: The Hill — https://bit.ly/3P4Arvo