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Study links even mild Covid-19 to changes in the brain

Published

3 years ago

March 8, 2022

Study links even mild Covid-19 to changes in the brain

The research, printed Monday within the journal Nature, is believed to be the biggest of its sort. It discovered that the brains of those that had Covid-19 had a better lack of grey matter and abnormalities within the mind tissue in contrast with those that did not have Covid-19. A lot of these modifications have been within the space of the mind associated to the sense of scent.

“We have been fairly shocked to see clear variations within the mind even with delicate an infection,” lead creator Gwenaëlle Douaud, an affiliate professor of neurosciences on the College of Oxford, informed CNN in an e-mail.

Douaud and her colleagues evaluated mind imaging from 401 individuals who had Covid-19 between March 2020 and April 2021, each earlier than an infection and a mean of 4½ months after an infection. They in contrast the outcomes with mind imaging of 384 uninfected folks related in age, socioeconomics and threat components equivalent to blood strain and weight problems. Of the 401 contaminated folks, 15 had been hospitalized.

The 785 individuals have been between the ages of 51 and 81 and have been all a part of the UK Biobank, an ongoing authorities well being database of 500,000 folks begun in 2012.

Douaud defined that it’s regular for folks to lose 0.2% to 0.3% of grey matter yearly within the memory-related areas of the mind as they age, however within the research analysis, individuals who had been contaminated with the coronavirus misplaced a further 0.2% to 2% of tissue in contrast with those that hadn’t been contaminated.

Along with imaging, the individuals have been examined for his or her government and cognitive perform utilizing the Path Making Take a look at, a instrument used to assist detect cognitive impairments related to dementia and take a look at an individual’s mind processing pace and performance. The researchers discovered that those that had the best mind tissue loss additionally carried out the worst on this examination.

Though the areas of the mind most affected look like associated to the olfactory system, Douaud stated it wasn’t clear why that was the case.

“For the reason that irregular modifications we see within the contaminated individuals’ brains is likely to be partly associated to their lack of scent, it’s potential that recovering it’d result in these mind abnormalities changing into much less marked over time. Equally, it’s possible that the dangerous results of the virus (whether or not direct, or oblique through inflammatory or immune reactions) lower over time after an infection. One of the best ways to seek out out can be to scan these individuals once more in a single or two years’ time,” she stated.

Douaud added that the researchers anticipate reimaging and testing the individuals in a single or two years.

And whereas the research finds some affiliation between an infection and mind perform, it is nonetheless not clear why. Earlier research have proven folks with vital and repeated lack of scent even have an related lack of grey matter. Nevertheless, this research didn’t consider whether or not folks truly had a lack of scent.

The authors cautioned that the findings have been solely of a second in time however famous that they “elevate the likelihood that longer-term penalties of SARS-CoV-2 an infection may in time contribute to Alzheimer’s illness or different types of dementia.”

The findings have been noticeable, however they weren’t sufficient to trigger alarm, stated Dr. Richard Isaacson, a neurologist and director of the Florida Atlantic College Heart for Mind Well being. Isaacson was not concerned within the research.

Isaacson stated the findings have been noticeable for clinicians, however he added that the general impression on people was troublesome to find out and might be small. “It is actually exhausting to know the long-term medical impression and high quality of life impression in a state of affairs like this,” he stated.

“The mind could also be affected by different mechanisms equivalent to immune, inflammatory, vascular or psychological/behavioral change however not direct an infection,” stated Dr. Alan Carson, a professor of neuropsychiatry on the Heart for Medical Mind Sciences on the College of Edinburgh, who was not concerned within the research.

“What this research virtually definitely exhibits is the impression, when it comes to neural modifications,” he stated. “However I do not assume it helps us perceive the mechanisms underpinning cognitive change after Covid an infection.”

Related Topics:Featured health Study links even mild Covid-19 to changes in the brain - CNN

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‘Absolutely Ridiculous’: Democrats Seethe at Schumer for Backing G.O.P. Spending Bill

Published

4 hours ago

March 16, 2025

Press Room

‘Absolutely Ridiculous’: Democrats Seethe at Schumer for Backing G.O.P. Spending Bill

Many Democratic lawmakers continued to express deep frustration at Senator Chuck Schumer on Sunday for having broken with most of his party to allow a Republican spending bill to pass, as the Democratic base increasingly demands stauncher resistance to President Trump’s far-reaching agenda.

Mr. Schumer, a New York Democrat and the Senate minority leader, joined nine other Democrats in allowing the bill to come to a vote, which averted a government shutdown. It was an abrupt reversal from Wednesday, when he said he would oppose the bill.

Explaining his sudden shift in position, Mr. Schumer argued that a shutdown would empower Mr. Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. “A shutdown would shut down all government agencies, and it would solely be up to Trump and DOGE and Musk what to open again, because they could determine what was essential,” he told The New York Times in an interview. “So their goal of decimating the whole federal government, of cutting agency after agency after agency, would occur under a shutdown.”

But to critics within his own party, he had squandered the leverage provided by the standoff to negotiate a bipartisan spending bill that would reclaim some of Congress’s power.

“He is absolutely wrong,” Representative Jasmine Crockett, Democrat of Texas, told CNN on Sunday. “The idea that Chuck Schumer is the only one that’s got a brain in the room and the only one that can think through all of the pros and cons is absolutely ridiculous.”

The stream of criticism that Mr. Schumer has faced since his vote comes as the Democratic Party is divided on how best to oppose Mr. Trump’s agenda while facing dismal polling numbers. An NBC poll released on Sunday showed that just 27 percent of voters had positive views of the party, while a majority of its base expressed disappointment at the Democrats’ fractured response.

Ms. Crockett has called on her Senate colleagues to consider ousting Mr. Schumer as minority leader, suggesting that “a younger, fresher leadership” is what “many Americans may be looking for.”

Representative James E. Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina, told MSNBC that the House minority leader, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, “got blindsided” by Mr. Schumer. House Democrats — all but one opposed the bill — had voted against giving Mr. Trump “a blank check,” Mr. Clyburn said. On Friday, Mr. Jeffries dodged repeated questions on whether he still supported Mr. Schumer as the leader of Senate Democrats.

Another House Democrat, Representative Debbie Dingell of Michigan, was a little more understanding, saying that Mr. Schumer had “sent out mixed signals.” But she stressed that even the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest labor union representing federal workers, whose members would be furloughed during a government shutdown, opposed the stopgap bill.

“People are scared, and they want us to do something,” Ms. Dingell said on CBS. “They want to see Democrats fighting back.”

Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, did not denounce Mr. Schumer but pleaded for a change in tactics and for a more steadfast resistance against the Trump administration.

“The way the president is acting using law enforcement to target dissidents, harassing TV stations and radio stations that criticize him, endorsing political violence, puts our democracy at immediate risk,” Mr. Murphy said on NBC. Over the past few weeks, Mr. Trump has revoked security clearances of lawyers who argued against him, dismantled congressionally funded news agencies and pardoned those convicted of attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Mr. Murphy added, “If you are a Democrat in the Senate or in the House you have to start acting with urgency.”

Prominent House Democrats, including Representative Nancy Pelosi, had pressed their Senate colleagues to block the bill. But more than a handful of Democratic senators joined Mr. Schumer in helping Republicans bring the bill to a vote: Dick Durbin of Illinois, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, as well as two who have announced plans to retire, Gary Peters of Michigan and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. Senator Angus King, the Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats, also voted yes.

Some Democrats, including Representatives Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts and Haley Stevens of Michigan, refrained from openly criticizing Mr. Schumer’s shift. They said Democratic infighting after the bill’s passage would only emphasize the divisions within the party. They warned that it would also draw voters’ attention away from Trump trade policies that have dampened the stock market and imbued uncertainty into the broader economy — developments that Democrats said could play to their advantage.

Ashley Etienne, a former communications director for Vice President Kamala Harris, told CNN that Democrats should not save Mr. Trump and Republicans from themselves. “Get out of the way,” she said. “Donald Trump said he was better for the economy. Let him prove it.”

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US says Trump and Putin to speak in next few days on Russia-Ukraine war

Published

6 hours ago

March 16, 2025

Press Room

US says Trump and Putin to speak in next few days on Russia-Ukraine war

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Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are set to hold a call about the Russia-Ukraine war in the coming week, a US official said, as Washington seeks to broker a ceasefire deal.

Trump envoy Steve Witkoff on Sunday told CNN he had a “positive” meeting with Putin and that the Russian and Ukrainian parties “are today a lot closer” in negotiations.

“I expect that there’ll be a call with both presidents this week and we’re also continuing to engage and have conversation with the Ukrainians,” he said.

The comments come after the US and its G7 partners on Friday warned Moscow that they could expand sanctions and use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, as Trump seeks to win over Putin to his ceasefire proposal. The joint statement followed a week in which Kyiv signed up to the 30-day truce but Moscow signalled reluctance to do so immediately.

Witkoff told CNN he had witnessed improvements in ceasefire negotiations. The sides were previously “miles apart,” he said.

Following talks in Saudi Arabia led by US national security adviser Mike Waltz and US secretary of state Marco Rubio as well as Witkoff’s “equally positive” meeting with Putin, “we’ve narrowed the differences between them and now we’re sitting at the table,” he added.

The White House and Russia’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The envoy told CBS that negotiations were complex, involving multiple angles and a large swath of territory, including a “main area of confrontation” in the Kursk region, a nuclear reactor supplying electricity to Ukraine and access to ports.

“There’s so many elements to the implementation of a ceasefire here,” Witkoff said, adding that it “involves how to get people to not be fighting with each other over a 2,000 kilometre border”.

He also seemed to dismiss a statement made by French President Emmanuel Macron, who argued that Russia “does not seem to be sincerely seeking peace”.

Witkoff declined to comment on Macron’s remarks, but added: “I think it’s unfortunate when people make those sort of assessments, and they don’t have, necessarily, first-hand knowledge . . . I saw a constructive effort over a long period of time to discuss the specifics of what’s going on in the field”.

Asked when he thinks there will be a deal, Witkoff cited Trump, who has said it would take weeks.

“I don’t disagree with him,” the envoy told CNN.

News

Trump Guts Voice Of America News Agency, Musk Says “Nobody listens to them anymore.”

Published

6 hours ago

March 16, 2025

Press Room

Trump Guts Voice Of America News Agency, Musk Says “Nobody listens to them anymore.”

Voice of America staff were locked out of their offices on Saturday—unable to complete planned reporting—after President Donald Trump signed an executive order gutting the government-run news agency that the White House has referred to as “radical propaganda.”

VOA was founded in 1942 in part to counter Nazi propaganda.

The move impacts all full-time staffers at the VOA and the Office for Cuba Broadcasting, which runs Radio and Television Martíore, and is poised to have a devastating effect on practically all operations under the United States Agency for Global Media—the parent entity of VOA and the department targeted by Trump’s Friday evening order.

According to the agency, which is fully funded by federal dollars, broadcasters and their sister networks reach 420 million people in 63 languages and more than 100 countries each week, “often in some of the world’s most restrictive media environments.”

“I am deeply saddened that for the first time in 83 years, the storied Voice of America is being silenced,” VOA director Michael Abramowitz wrote in a LinkedIn post. He shared that his entire staff of 1,300 journalists, producers, and assistants had been put on administrative leave, including himself. “Even if the agency survives in some form, the actions being taken today by the Administration will severely damage Voice of America’s ability to foster a world that is safe and free and in doing so is failing to protect U.S. interests,” he said.

A statement released by the White House following the executive order details news coverage by VOA as justification for the defunding, including an article defining white privilege after the murder of George Floyd, a story about whether Russia perpetuated allegations against Hunter Biden to benefit Trump, and a segment on LGBT migrants.

“It’s a relic of the past,” Ric Grenell, Trump’s special envoy for special missions, wrote on X in February. “We don’t need government-paid media outlets.” Trump’s billionaire donor and Department of Government Efficiency advisor Elon Musk wrote on his social media platform: “Yes, shut them down … Nobody listens to them anymore.”

The order, entitled “Continuing the Reduction Of The Federal Bureaucracy,” called for multiple other departments to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” including the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, and the Minority Business Development Agency.

In December, Trump announced that Republican Kari Lake, a former news anchor who ran twice for office in Arizona on a MAGA platform and lost both times, was his pick to serve as director of Voice of America—though that didn’t happen. A couple of months later, Trump named her a senior adviser to the USAGM.

On Saturday morning, Lake took to X, shared a link to the executive order, and told employees to check their emails—where they would find news of being terminated.