Back in March, I wrote about a study that was widely touted as showing that catching Covid lowers your IQ. The study found that individuals who’d had symptoms for more than 12 weeks scored about 6 points lower than those who hadn’t caught the virus. Even individuals who’d had an asymptomatic infection, the study found, scored about 2.5 points lower than those who’d never had one.
However, I was sceptical that these findings were explained by Covid having a large negative impact on cognitive ability.
The authors didn’t actually look at change in IQ scores, but rather at the cross-sectional association between Covid infection and IQ scores. Hence their findings could easily be explained by self-selection: people with higher cognitive ability may have been less likely to catch Covid, and may have been less likely to get seriously ill when they did catch it. As evidence, I noted that such people tend to work in professions that had lower risk of exposure to Covid, and tend to be healthier in general.
A new study has confirmed my suspicions: it appears that catching Covid doesn’t lower your IQ after all.
Bas Weerman and colleagues analysed data from the Understanding America Study – an ongoing longitudinal survey with a large sample size that began in 2014. As part of the survey, respondents complete a series of cognitive tests every two years. In March of 2020, they completed a questionnaire about the emerging Covid pandemic, in which they were asked whether they’d ever tested positive for the virus or been diagnosed with the disease by a healthcare professional. Around the same time, they were invited to participate in separate bi-weekly surveys, which also asked about their infection status.
The researchers therefore had data on respondents’ test scores before the pandemic, their infection status during the pandemic, and their test scores after they’d been infected (for those who had). This allowed them to test whether Covid infection was associated with a decline in test scores between the pre- and post-Covid waves of the survey.
Weerman and colleagues began by replicating the finding of the earlier study – that individuals with lower test scores measured before the pandemic were more likely to become infected. They then looked at whether individuals who became infected subsequently scored lower on the cognitive tests, and found they did not. Eight separate measures of cognitive ability were included in the study, and none of them was affected by Covid infection.
Together, these two findings strongly support my interpretation of the earlier study: self-selection is what explains the association between Covid infection and IQ scores. Rather than Covid infection causing lower cognitive ability, it appears that higher cognitive ability caused people not to catch Covid (or to catch the later, milder variants).
All those headlines about Covid making you less intelligent – about even mild infections knocking several points off your IQ – turned out not to be true. Given the media’s general tendency to exaggerate, overhype and sensationalise the threat from Covid, I wouldn’t expect this new study to get nearly as much coverage as the earlier one.
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Continuing excess deaths here in the NL also. Is it just me and my selective memory or did we not hear much about excess deaths of unknown cause years back? In the summer time too…Its certainly a head-scratcher. Unless you’re Swiss Doctor who is want to lay the blame on a summer cold-type virus and the heat before any other cause.
https://nltimes.nl/2022/09/09/excess-mortality-continues-august-scientists-struggling-research-cause
“Trevor Sinclair facing calls to be sacked after controversial Queen tweet”
A hate filled tweet for sure, and he has previous as his conviction for racially abusing a police officer while being arrested for drink driving. However if he is to be sacked it should be because he doesn’t have the sort of interesting things to say about football that would keep a listeners attention.
Hypocrisy is hypocrisy though. Had Matt LeTissier said “white people shouldn’t mourn the passing of Nelson Mandela” (he wouldn’t because he’s not like that, but i’m just making the point) an equally bone-headed statement, his feet would not have touched the floor on the way out.
Also note the use of the word ‘controversial’ in the headline. That suggests that it has some merit but is not well received in some parts. There is nothing controversial about it, it is grossly offensive and has no redeeming value whatsoever. As was the comment by the US Academic that was also in the news.
Free speech by private individuals is fine, but when you are a public figure it is not unreasonable for them to be held to a higher standard. Hence why I think it is a matter for their employers, but not for the police.
I wasn’t suggesting that he shouldn’t be sacked. Rather that his performance on Talk Radio is hard to square with his continued presence there. Its another ‘job for the boy’, with very little to merit it.
LeTiss demonstrates a good working knowledge of football and a reasonable perspective about the world, along with his sceptical attitude. You are right though. Sky canned him for not liking to have to wear the BLM badge on his jacket.
“British Climate Divergence: Jacob Rees-Mogg Appointed Energy Minister, as Charles is Crowned King”
There is a pragmatic necessity, that having followed the wrong energy policy for years, we don’t compound it by trying to carry on as if it hasn’t been a total disaster. It is the classic, ‘if you find your self in a hole, stop digging’.
It might be nice if they take a look at the pricing mechanisms for renewables too. Charles will just have to suck it up and let the new Prince of Wales berate us poor people for wanting to be warm in our homes, and put food on the table instead.
“Why was Kemi Badenoch overlooked for Education Secretary?”
I’m a Kemi fan, and hoped that she would get Education too. However, I can see the logic of having Kit Malthouse in there instead. He is older and more experienced, and seems the type to have a go at the blob. Kemi could be a future Prime Minister, but not if she throws herself across Education and is stymied or defeated. Trade will allow her to hone her skills and build her capital, in what is a vital role of expanding the economy. Its a positive role that will suit her positive outlook. I hope I’m right.
My worry about the Trade brief would be that it depends very much on the Government cutting EU induced red tape and regulations. Otherwise all she can really achieve is rolling over our pre-independence agreements.
Despite making noises in the direction, so-far at least deregulation has always been at the bottom of the to-do list along with all of the other manifesto promises that they have no intention of getting around to.
Accepted that priorities change, but the PM was quite forthright about bombing the EU red tape out the system. I keep hoping that she will follow through on her pledges.
I’ll be as happy as anyone if they actually do, but those are the kinds of things they talk about but for some reason never seem to actually do.
My late father used to call them ‘The Gunners’, on account of them gunner do this or gunner do that.
I’m posting this link here as a follow on to the discussion yesterday about Common Law. If enough of us follow this path, then we can & will set-up a parallel legal system which cannot be hijacked or corrupted by those who wish to control everything, as Common Law is higher than Maritime or Statute Law. BTW ever wondered why one is given citizenship? At birth we’re registered by the state as chattel, as a ship & are therefore subject to maritime law, which is set up for trade & commerce.
https://www.commonlawcourt.com/
Cash updates:
2022 coins from the Mint with Charles III on might be quite rare? By the time the Royal Mint produce them, it will be just a couple of months to 2023. They could become commemorative editions automatically – potentially worth more than their face value. Similar gamble with notes, perhaps.
I’d be surprised if they weren’t minted months ago.
Hmm. Is the Bank of England really into actuarial gambling? They would have to be pretty secret about manufacturing in advance, based on someone’s life expectancy. I suppose they might have reduced the amount printed and minted if they thought she was unlikely to survive for so many months each year. Might even be sketching some King William designs in the background!
Or they might not even bother, as it will be digital currency in the very near future?
https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/985093/the-queen-set-for-a-bumper-payout-from-offshore-wind-985093.html
Nice and tidy.
It gets worse when you learn that she has been interfering with inheritance laws….
Published documents from the National Archives reveal that the Queen on occasions used the consent procedure to privately lobby the government
Evidence suggests she used the procedure to persuade government ministers to change a 1970s transparency law in order to conceal her private wealth from the public.
Documents also show that on other occasions the monarch’s advisers demanded exclusions from proposed laws relating to road safety and land policy that appeared to affect estates, and pressed for government policy on historic sites to be altered.
Some of the bills the Queen reviewed before they were passed by parliament relate to wealth or taxation.
One of the richest families in Britain, the monarch’s property investments are exempt from inheritance tax.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/08/royals-vetted-more-than-1000-laws-via-queens-consent
This is what we are a part of!
https://twitter.com/winteroakpress/status/1568304210826989572?s=21&t=XAhgcTRzpq1UmFx8rHEK0Q
I think my wife gave me the new BJ1 variant. It sucks.
I have an antiquated Teasmade gathering dust in the attic. Don’t know why that just sprung to mind?