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Dear Editor;
I wish our state legislature would consider in their deliberations and place in the legislative record medical expert testimony including an article form the December 2020/January 2021 issue of the AARP Magazine titled The Surprising Connection COVID AND THE BRAIN by Sanjay Gupta. M.D.
Some of the information in the AARP the Magazine December 2020/January 2021 aarp.org/magazine beginning on Page 42 COVID AND THE BRAIN BY Sanjay Gupta.MD include:
Four-fifths of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 have neurological symptoms, and varying studies estimate at least half of people who recover from COVID-19 continue to suffer neurological symptoms for months
Brain Scans show structural and functional changes to the brain
Reports of encephalopathy or altered brain function in nearly a third of patients with an increased risk of severe illness and death
Neurologic manifestations as a whole were more likely to occur in younger people though encephalopathy was more frequent in older patients.
Potential brain changes set the stage for long-term cognitive decline and dementia later on?
(Studies have already shown far reaching insults by similar virus' SARS and MERS do to the Brain)
James Griffiths
Dodgeville, WI