Recovered Covid-19 hospital patients found to have altered functional connectivity in the brain—Implications for public policy

The recent confirmation via biomolecular studies that Covid is very highly likely to have resulted from the lab escape of an engineered pathogen, places both Covid and mRNA vaccination on a similarly sinister footing. 

This release investigates their effect on individual cognitive ability, social conditions, and the implications for public policy.

Covid-19 almost certainly results not solely from a naturally occurring virus known to exist in wild populations, but from a largely secret gain of function experiment designed to radically enhance viral pathogenesis through cutting and pasting of genetic structures and instructions, some natural and some engineered. 

Covid vaccines are engineered genetic interventions taking over our human cells and commanding them to produce the same toxic spike protein as the Covid-19 virus and in large quantities. 

We are only just beginning to appreciate the risks shared by both.

A study completed in India “Assessing functional connectivity differences and work-related fatigue in surviving COVID-negative patients” has used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brain and detected cerebro-vascular abnormalities two weeks after recovery from Covid infection and hospital discharge. 

Functional connectivity (FC) is a measure of how regions of the brain interact with each other. In the Indian study of university students who had recently been hospitalised with Covid but now tested negative for the virus, subjects showed significant changes in functional connectivity in a number of different sites in the brain when compared to controls who did not have any history of Covid infection. FC changes were noted in areas of the brain associated with:

• Attention processing
• Visual processing
• Cognitive processing
• Emotional processing
• Language processing
• Social cognitive processing
• Memory

The study was published 1st February 2022 and therefore it is likely that the subjects predominantly had Delta variant infection. In common with many other recent studies, the authors did not report the vaccination status of subjects, a significant deficiency. The students were from the Indian Institute of Technology which currently has a policy to require Covid vaccination. As a result, any contribution of Covid vaccination to outcomes could not be assessed or measured. Given the engineered components of both Covid and mRNA Covid vaccination, more differentiated study design and analysis should have been required.

In western developed nations, the vast majority of populations have been vaccinated, many with repeated boosters. It is essential that future studies always differentiate between outcomes for both the vaccinated and unvaccinated. This should always analyse frequency and type of Covid vaccination

A preprint study in March 2022 reported changes to the immune function of glial cells in the brain as a result of mRNA vaccination. Glial cells play a crucial role in supporting brain function. Glial cell impairment may have a role in reducing FC, pointing to possible confounding complications due to mRNA vaccination which should have been discussed and assessed.

Poor functional connectivity is associated with aging and cognitive impairment

Earlier studies, unrelated to Covid, suggest functional impairments in the occipital and parietal lobes such as those found in the Indian study could be associated with: 

• Loss of motivation in day-to-day tasks
• Mild cognitive impairment
• Fatigue

In some cases even a single very small brain lesion, as found for example in some epilepsy patients, can cause widespread change in functional connectivity throughout the brain. The Indian authors suspect that FC lesions observed in the Covid patients could be playing a similar role in the development of Long Covid symptoms such as brain fog.

It is significant that lesions which cause dysfunction in the brain (sometimes referred to as ‘functional holes’) have been associated with violent and aggressive behaviour (see here and here). In addition to brain injury and inherited conditions, their origin and effect has been found to be connected with genetic and biomolecular moderators—factors that could be affected by both Covid infection and mRNA vaccination.

The subjects in the Indian study of Covid outcomes following hospitalisation had widely varying FC scores—some were affected more than others. It found that FC patterns in the Covid group were correlated with a self-reported fatigue scale.

Enhanced structural and functional connectivity is associated with measures of intelligence

The human brain is characterized by structural and functional connectivity within and between brain regions. This can be measured in different ways by both fMRI and EEG (electroencephalogram—measurement and fourier analysis of electrical signals in the brain measured on the scalp surface). High EEG connectivity measured by phase and frequency coherence between brain regions has been correlated with:

• Concept Learning
• Moral Reasoning
• IQ
• Decreased Neuroticism
• Creativity
• Neurological Efficiency measured by the H-Reflex

These associations were found among subjects who had practiced meditation regularly for some time and indicated the opposite of reduced cognitive ability associated with increasing age. The findings suggest that meditation may be useful in Long Covid recovery. This should be investigated.

The FC changes observed in recovered Covid patients are consistent with the effects of aging

Studies linked here and here have found measures of general functional connectivity decrease with age across a wide range of brain structures and are associated with cognitive impairment.

Classic psychological impairments known to be connected with aging among some individuals include:

• Fluctuating levels of alertness accompanied by fearful, irritable, and aggressive behaviour
• Low concentration levels and consequent difficulty taking the decisions necessary for everyday tasks
• Impaired social functioning and cooperation
• Clouding of awareness, depression, and loneliness

The psychological effects of Covid infection and vaccination have hardly been studied. The Indian study points to the need for more assessment of psychological effects of Covid. Given the confounding psychological effects of lockdowns and fear of Covid, it is not clear to what extent damage to functional connections in the brain could play a significant role. Nor is it clear how long these effects might last.

The pandemic is a gradually unfolding social tragedy

It is notable that a number of public institutions appear to be functioning below their designed capacity and failing to meet urgent targets. It is apparent that social polarisation has increased during the pandemic. Violent crime has also increased. Workplace absenteeism has increased. Inflation and economic circumstances have worsened. Obviously these have multiple causes, but in the final analysis all come down at root to the aggregated acts of individuals.

There is scope for longitudinal investigation and assessment to find out if these circumstances of social dysfunction could be in part due to physical effects of Covid infection and/or Covid vaccination on individual brain function. Are either having a significant impact on social cooperation, economic activity, and individual well being?

There are implications for human genetic stability

There have been over half a million papers published during the Covid pandemic. It is easy to miss key findings.  Crucially the Indian study confirms that biotech interventions and experimentation can be associated with declines in cognitive ability that mimic ageing. It should ring alarm bells. As its findings involve the little known and technically complex cutting edge of brain research, serious implications may have been overlooked. The whole process of human evolution is known to involve unique genetic traits associated with language acquisition and cognitive ability. Any degradation of these will have catastrophic individual and social effects. The implication is obvious: biotech editing must be paused—it’s dangerous.  

Believe me, biotechnology has gotten out of hand. Epidemiologist Michael Baker was doing the rounds of the media again this week, going through the motions of telling us all to mask up and vaccinate yet again. It wasn’t a very convincing performance, the tide of evidence has turned against him. In an act of mock heroic imagination, he reassured us that excess deaths were due to Covid and nothing else. As vaccination status is not recorded on death certificates, he must be a prophet of biblical ability to reach that conclusion. 

But, whether excess deaths are due to Covid or to mRNA vaccination (it’s a mix whose proportions are the subject of ongoing research and academic debate), both are now known to be due to biotechnology editing and experimentation.  The full extent of long term outcomes is only just being glimpsed.

In this regard, it is frightening that you can buy home biotechnology CRISPR editing kits for as little as $169 sold under the title BIOHACK THE PLANET. Start worrying, little Johnny is probably not staying up late in his bedroom with a night light reading comics as we did, he could be ending life as we know it. 

Seriously though, growing generations are being schooled to accept biotech mutagenesis as ordinary, inherently safe, and a profitable career path, but mutagenesis implies dysfunction which can be either slow and relentless like cancer or swift and final like myocardial infarction. It can quietly steal away the future we were planning to enjoy, not just our future, but the future of our children and their children. 

Novel genetic information spreads without limit and cannot be recalled. There are casual risks being introduced almost every day by aspiring biotechnologists, including many in the agriculture and food sectors, which can accumulate in the biosphere. They are eating away at genetic stability, until tipping points like the Covid pandemic are inevitably reached.

The complexity of microbiological life is unimaginable. It has proved resilient through the ages, but its fragility in the face of biotech editing has now been laid bare. We should know from our pandemic experience, biotechnology experiments can upset the natural balance previously inherited intact through millions of generations. 

Time for Global Legislation Outlawing Biotechnology Experimentation. Go to GLOBE.GLOBAL for more information.

Guy Hatchard PhD was formerly a senior manager at Genetic ID a food testing and certification company (now known as FoodChain ID). Website: HatchardReport.com.

Guy is the author of ‘Your DNA Diet: Leveraging the Power of Consciousness To Heal Ourselves and Our World. An Ayurvedic Blueprint For Health and Wellness’.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of DTNZ.