The COVID-19 pandemic and associated vaccination efforts have brought the issue of vaccine hesitancy to the forefront of media and public attention. From 2019 to 2021, the prevalence of the term “hesitancy” in titles of scientific literature has risen from 3.3% to 8.3%, and continued skepticism around the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines remains a significant barrier in … Read more
Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. Patients with COVID-19, especially those with an altered sense of smell, have significantly more axon and microvasculopathy damage in the brain’s olfactory tissue versus non-COVID patients. These new findings from a post-mortem study may explain long-term loss of smell in some … Read more
Patients with persistent cognitive impairment months after illness with mild COVID-19 have higher levels of inflammatory markers in their cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Researchers found elevated levels of CSF immune activation and immunovascular markers in individuals with cognitive post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC). Patients whose cognitive symptoms developed during the acute phase of COVID-19 had … Read more
Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. Investigators have found biochemical evidence of brain injury in patients hospitalized with acute COVID-19 and in those with long COVID. Combined blood biomarker evidence of neuronal damage activation of glial cells, indicating brain inflammation, correlated with symptoms of anxiety in long … Read more