We are currently experiencing another “unforeseen” consequence of COVID lockdowns.  Every day, in medical practices across our country, doctors are treating patients with viral injuries to the body’s nervous system at a level of virulence not seen in recent memory.  Not only are continuously mutating strains of COVID to blame, but viruses other than COVID also seem to be more toxic to our nervous systems.

It may not be “War of the Worlds,” with alien invaders decimated by common viral pathogens on Earth, but it’s a B-movie spin-off with a less lethal plot.  Fortunately, if we can manage to avoid future ill designed lockdowns, regaining collective immunity should help us get over this problem.

Physicians assign, usually by default, viral illness as the most likely etiology in the sudden onset of cranial nerve injuries.  Sudden loss of smell and taste, a change in the mobility of the eye muscles, loss of hearing with or without new-onset vertigo, loss of facial muscle mobility, movement disorders of the tongue or throat, and sudden breathiness of the voice are examples of damage done to different cranial nerves. 

The seed of this epidemic in more virulent virus-induced nerve damage germinated during our forced lockdowns in response to COVID-19.  While we were not going to work or school and avoiding crowds, our exposure to viruses plummeted.  For example, that first year, the U.S. basically had no “flu season.”  Viruses continued to mutate, however, becoming more communicable and virulent while our immune systems were not being exposed.  When we ultimately did, the viruses caused worse damage to our bodies.  Our immunity hadn’t kept up.  We had an “Immunity Debt.”

One of the unfortunate issues related to loss of cranial nerve function, well documented in the loss of smell, taste, and hearing, is an increased rate of earlier-onset dementia.  Most people recovered their ability to smell and taste after the virus, but many didn’t.  Significant percentages of those who lost their ability to hear by viral injury didn’t recover, either.  The long-term consequences are worrisome.

We all learned through experience that forced isolation poured gasoline on the fire of decline in patients already suffering from dementia.  COVID and other viruses may have been directly responsible for brain injury resulting in decline in cognition, too.  While many victims tested positive for COVID when losing their nerve function, many did not.  Our issue with immunity debt means that viruses other than COVID could be to blame.

It would be difficult to exclude the possibility of viral injury to parts of the nervous system other than those involving the cranial nerves.  Indeed, the probability is high.  As an example, many people have issues related to their alimentary tract after COVID, with food seeming to go right through them when they eat.  A percentage of patients who suffer from this problem still haven’t improved many months after their illness, losing weight and vitality, sometimes to a frightening degree.  We might blame the flora of the gut for this illness, but viral effect on the autonomic nervous system is possible.   

Like this postulated problem, many bizarre effects from these more aggressive, virulent strains of virus are likely to be discovered with time.  The lesson we’ve learned is that not having exposure to evolving viral strains has consequences for our immunity.  Our immune systems do better when we keep up.

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