Scientists: Covid Can Cause IQ Drop, Worsen Asthma In Children

CIDRAP: Severe COVID-19 May Cause 10-Point IQ Drop, 20-Year Brain Aging
Cognitive impairment from severe COVID-19 is equivalent to losing 10 IQ points or 20 years of aging, and any recovery is slow at best, suggests a small study published late last week in eClinicalMedicine. A team led by Imperial College London and University of Cambridge researchers tested 46 COVID-19 patients admitted to a single hospital 6 to 10 months earlier, from Mar 10 to Jul 31, 2020, and matched controls. Sixteen of the COVID-19 patients (34.8%) had required mechanical ventilation. Participants underwent computerized cognitive assessment at an average follow-up of 6 months after their initial infection. The researchers transformed scores from patients and controls into standard deviations (SDs) from expected scores for participants' age and demographic characteristics and calculated global accuracy and response time composites. (5/3)

Reuters: COVID Worsens Asthma In Children
Asthma in children may worsen after an infection with the coronavirus, doctors warn. They studied nearly 62,000 U.S. children with asthma who had PCR tests for the virus in the first year of the pandemic, including more than 7,700 who tested positive. Infected children had significantly more asthma visits, hospitalizations, emergency inhaler use, and steroid treatments during the six months after their illness compared to children who tested negative and to their own prior history, researchers reported in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice. Children who tested negative for the virus "had improved asthma control for the next six months, meaning fewer emergency department visits and hospitalizations for asthma, and less asthma treatment," said Dr. Christine Chou of Children's Health of Orange County, in California. (Lapid, 5/4)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Tied To Adverse Maternal Outcomes, Preterm Birth
A surveillance study of more than 6,000 women who gave birth in Canada during the pandemic suggests that those infected with COVID-19 were at higher risk for hospitalization and intensive care unit (ICU) admission than those of nonpregnant women of childbearing age. University of British Columbia researchers led the observational study, which also found that infected pregnant women may have been at significantly increased risk for preterm birth compared with their uninfected peers. (Van Beusekom, 5/3)

In other covid-related developments —

CIDRAP: Mayo Study Finds COVID Vaccine Materials Written At Too-High Reading Level
COVID-19 vaccine informational material is written at more than a 10th-grade reading level and thus is far too difficult to understand for the average American, researchers from the Mayo Clinic concluded in a study published today in Vaccine. At least 25% of the US population currently has very low-level reading skills and is unable to comprehend a bus schedule or medication and cleaning-product labels, the authors said. (5/3)

Reuters: Booster After Infection Not As Beneficial Vs Omicron
Among people who were previously infected with the coronavirus, a third dose of an mRNA vaccine from Pfizer (PFE.N)/BioNTech (22UAy.DE) or Moderna (MRNA.O) may not boost their protection against the Omicron variant of the virus, according to new data. Researchers studied nearly 130,000 people tested for COVID in Connecticut from November 2021 through January 2022, including 10,676 with Omicron infections. Roughly 6% to 8% had been infected with previous versions of the coronavirus, according to a report posted on medRxiv ahead of peer review. Two doses of an mRNA vaccine did help protect against Omicron among people with prior infections, but "we did not detect an additional benefit of receiving a third booster dose among this population," said Margaret Lind of Yale University. (Lapid, 5/4)

Scientific American: Nose Spray Vaccines Could Quash COVID Virus Variants
To block infections entirely, scientists want to deliver inoculations to the site where the virus first makes contact: the nose. People could simply spray the vaccines up their nostrils at home, making the preparation much easier to administer. There are eight of these nasal vaccines in clinical development now and three in phase 3 clinical trials, where they are being tested in large groups of people. But making these vaccines has proven to be slow going because of the challenges of creating formulations for this unfamiliar route that are both safe and effective. What could be most important about nasal vaccines is their ability to awaken a powerful bodily defender known as mucosal immunity, something largely untapped by the standard shots. (Broadfoot, 5/3)

Also —

St. Louis Public Radio: Sleep Apnea Correlates With Increased Traffic Accidents For Older Adults, Sleep Expert Says 
A new study out of Washington University shows a correlation between sleep apnea and traffic accidents in older adults. Sleep apnea occurs when breathing is interrupted at least five times an hour during the night, and it affects an estimated 30% to 50% of older adults. Since it prevents people from reaching a state of deep sleep, it puts people in chronic states of sleep deprivation, which can lead to risky behavior on the road. Dr. Brendan Lucey, an associate professor of neurology at Washington University and the director of its Sleep Medicine Center, is one of the authors of the study. He and his team studied more than 100,000 driving trips to explore a connection between sleep interruptions and unsafe driving practices. (Mather-Glass, 5/3)