Reports abound about Covid-19 causing (temporary) loss of smell and taste. And there are growing reports about it causing loss of hearing too.
Viruses such as measles, mumps and meningitis are known to sometimes cause sudden hearing loss, and there’s growing evidence that the novel coronavirus should be added to the list.
‘We’re hearing more and more that people have hearing loss as part of their Covid infection,’ said Dr. Matthew Stewart, associate professor of otolaryngology at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
(CNN, October 10, 2020)
But there are relatively few reports about Covid-19 causing (permanent) loss of memory. Here is how Natalie C. Tronson, an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan, highlighted this dearth of research in an August 7 newsletter for Discover magazine.
________
I am a neuroscientist specializing in how memories are formed, the role of immune cells in the brain and how memory is persistently disrupted after illness and immune activation. As I survey the emerging scientific literature, my question is: Will there be a COVID-19-related wave of memory deficits, cognitive decline and dementia cases in the future?
________
As it happens, just on Sunday, no less a trailblazer than The New York Times featured a story on this less-reported side effect under the headline:
- ‘I Feel Like I Have Dementia’: Brain Fog Plagues Covid Survivor – The condition is affecting thousands of patients, impeding their ability to work and function in daily life.
The report sums up this brain fog as follows:
[Troubling] cognitive symptoms that can include memory loss, confusion, difficulty focusing, dizziness and grasping for everyday words. Increasingly, Covid survivors say brain fog is impairing their ability to work and function normally.
As the title to this commentary indicates, I can personally attest to the memory deficits (a.k.a. brain fog). And, yes, it is a curious thing that, despite my memory loss, I remember enough to write about it.
All the same, my cognitive impairment manifests in very peculiar and intensely frustrating ways. Most notably, post-Covid discussions with professional colleagues about the Coney Barrett Supreme Court nomination have thrown this into stark relief.
Because they remark on my sudden inability to cite cases, which they all know I should be able to do with the ease of a schoolboy citing his ABCs. Thank God I no longer have to rely on such recall for my daily bread.
But I experience this memory deficit on a more personal level every time I listen to one of my favorite podcasts, Stuff You Missed in History Class. Because, more often than not, I get the annoying sense that I know or should know the stuff the hosts are talking about. Yet every check of my memory bank for that information bounces.
I experience similar frustration when I try to recite poems. Because I remember enough to know that, from a very early age, I could recite even metaphysical poems the way other kids sang nursery rhymes. Now I can barely remember the names of the poets, let alone their poetry.
Mind you, relatives and close friends remind me that I could never remember personal dates like birthdays and anniversaries. But I suspect that had or has more to do with my lack of sentimentality, which borders on the curmudgeonly.
Incidentally, perhaps even more than loss of memory, there is little scientific data to support anecdotal claims about Covid-19 causing loss of sight. But I hope that’s because there is in fact no causation. After all, boyhood onanism has already caused so much loss of sight that I’ll end up blind if Covid causes any further loss.
In any event, I am sharing my story as a PSA, and to provide anecdotal data for the emerging scientific literature on the memory deficits Covid-19 causes. But, as family and friends will tell you, I thank God every day that my bout with Covid was relatively benign. Because even if memory loss becomes a “long-haul” side effect, I am faring a lot better than millions living with far worse side effects, let alone the hundreds of thousands who have died.
Related commentaries:
Covid-19…