Covid infections are causing IQ drops and years of brain aging, studies suggest

Study quality and causality

• Many commenters stress that the cited work is observational and mostly correlational (self-reported surveys, no clean pre/post measures, imperfect controls).
• Several argue the article headline overstates causation; they want longitudinal designs with individual pre‑ and post‑infection scores and rigorously defined uninfected controls.
• Others counter that multiple studies across countries show consistent cognitive impairment after COVID, which they see as strong circumstantial evidence even if mechanisms aren’t fully nailed down.

IQ as a measure

• Long subthread debates IQ’s validity: culture dependence, single-number reduction of multidimensional intelligence, and confounding by language, education, and attention.
• Some defend nonverbal tests (e.g., pattern matching, matrices) as useful proxies for general problem-solving and job performance; others say IQ measures only a narrow slice and is easily distorted by illness, fatigue, ADHD, or anxiety.
• There is concern about cross-country comparisons and about interpreting small point shifts (“3 IQ points”) as meaningful.

Anecdotal cognitive effects

• Numerous reports of post-COVID brain fog, memory lapses, slower thinking, and math/logic difficulty — sometimes severe enough to derail careers or daily functioning.
• Several describe partial recovery over months to years; others report little or no recovery after 2–3 years.
• Some note similar long-tail effects from other viruses (e.g., Epstein–Barr), reinforcing that post-viral cognitive issues are not unique to COVID.

Alternative explanations and confounders

• Suggested confounders include lockdown-related isolation, missed schooling, increased poverty, depression, anxiety, sleep loss, vitamin D deficiency, and general aging.
• Some argue that pandemic-era lifestyle changes alone could explain part of the observed decline, even without direct viral brain damage.

Possible mechanisms and broader infection context

• Discussed mechanisms include neuroinflammation, metabolic changes (e.g., shifts to anaerobic respiration), endothelial damage, “post-exertional malaise,” viral persistence in tissues, and broader ME/CFS-like pathways.
• Older work is cited showing multiple severe infections (not just COVID) correlate with lower cognitive scores, implying this may be a general infection effect rather than COVID-specific.

Vaccines, excess deaths, and controversy

• Heated subthread debates whether vaccines contribute to excess deaths or long-term issues; participants cite national mortality datasets and official analyses but disagree on data quality and bias.
• Some see robust evidence that vaccination lowers all-cause mortality; others distrust public-health data and raise concerns about time-windowing, “healthy vaccinee” bias, and underreported side effects.
• Overall tone: strong polarization, with calls both to avoid conspiratorial thinking and to avoid dismissing adverse experiences outright.

Coping and treatment attempts

• People mention hyperbaric oxygen therapy, SSRIs (for possible anti-inflammatory or anxiety effects), pacing to avoid post-exertional crashes, diet changes, vitamins (B12, D, omega‑3), and long-COVID support groups.
• No clear consensus “fix”; posters emphasize that post-viral syndromes are complex, heterogeneous, and still poorly understood.