The COVID, Vaccines, and Parkinsonism Anthology Series
A collection of posts looking into the effects of the pandemic on parkinsonism, as well as possible relation to vaccination.
There have been several stories surrounding neurocognitive impairments post COVID infection, as well as questions around the vaccines possibly influencing neurodegeneration.
This series was spurred predominately by a case report in which a person with Parkinson’s disease received 3 COVID vaccines and later collapsed, was sent to the hospital and later died two weeks after receiving the COVID booster.
This raised questions about whether the vaccine exacerbated the symptoms in this one elderly man, or if other factors could have been at play.
Thus, this series intended to look into the literature to see what role viral infections play in parkinsonism, whether SARS-COV2 may increase rates of parkinsonism in the future, and if the vaccines may contribute to rates of parkinsonism.
I should note that in hindsight my general thought process with this series got lost along the way, and the end result doesn’t necessarily reflect the initial intentions of this series.
Part I
The curious autopsy report and the search for answers.
This first post outlined what the next posts would detail, although changes were made as each post was released and so the outline here is outdated. However, it includes the discussion of this case report on Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying’s podcast The Darkhorse Podcast which renewed interest into this autopsy.
Part II
An overview of Parkinson's Disease and Parkinsonism.
To start, an overview of Parkinson’s disease and parkinsonism is provided to help outline some of the symptoms and possible mechanisms for these symptoms.
Part III-1
Viral parkinsonism, the Braak hypothesis, and are Lewy bodies harmful or protective?
Reviews of past viral outbreaks have noted an uptick in Parkinson-like symptoms in the time period afterwards, suggesting an association between viruses and the onset of parkinsonism. Evidence suggests that viruses play a rather close role in unmaking Parkinson-like symptoms. One hypothesis, the Braak hypothesis, suggests that neuroinvasion from viral infections is likely to kick off the cascade of parkinsonism. Given concerns over neurodegeneration I provided a caveat in Lewy bodies, suggesting an antimicrobial peptide role in these proteins that may actually be neuroprotective and may protect the CNS from viral invasion.
Part III-2
What effect did the COVID pandemic have on neurodegeneration; and does SARS-COV2 actually penetrate the brain?
In consideration with the previous post there are plausible concerns that the pandemic may lead to an increase in Parkinson’s disease and parkinsonism diagnoses in the coming months and years. Here some broad information is provided looking into this possible scenario, linking to various sources looking into whether parkinsonism may surge in the near future. In addition, I raise some points to rebut the idea that SARS-COV2 may be neuroinvasive, and may primarily target the vascular endothelium inside the brain by citing one autopsy study in particular. It should be warned that this study does not conclusively rebut the idea that SARS-COV2 is neuroinvasive, but adds some additional context and complexity to the situation.
Part IV
Can we glean anything from the autopsy case report?
This post looks back to the case report that started this series, seeing if information previously gathered can add some perspective, including looking at criticisms raised against John Campbell’s reading of the case report and seeing whether they are sound.
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