Post-vaccine injury and long COVID have now replaced syphilis and tuberculosis in first place for disorders we often refer to as “The Great Pretenders.” And what we are now seeing is often vastly different than neurological presentations prior to 2020 and 2021. 

While the events that began in early 2020 may have waned in severity and scope, there are still countless patients living with the impacts of a tremendous rise in other conditions, especially autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders.

If you’ve been following along with our regularly updated long COVID series, we’ve discussed in detail the role of immune dysregulation and molecular mimicry as just two of the diverse mechanisms involved in spike-induced disease. These processes have been identified in ongoing research as significant contributors to this novel disorder and why finding the best treatments for each patient can be very elusive.    

As I have noted in my ongoing long COVID series, the impacts to the brain post infection and post vaccine injury can have long lingering neurological impacts and  can vary from mild to more severe symptoms regardless of the severity of the original illness.  In this recent study, a team looked at the range of issues and how the use of neuroimaging might aid in identifying the neurotropic behavior of SARS-CoV-2 and the regions of the brain most affected, both directly and indirectly by the disease.