Existential Crisis and Damaged Brains

Covid and Climate Change, topics to avoid for a more ordinary world.

What has happened to it all?
Crazy, some'd say
Where is the life that I recognise?
(Gone away)

But I won't cry for yesterday
There's an ordinary world
Somehow I have to find
And as I try to make my way
To the ordinary world

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Yesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today?

I began a piece about the world having gone mad, from where the US is heading to our eagerness to follow them there. But I had a growing feeling that maybe I’d written enough about American politics for a bit. That perhaps people wouldn’t want to read more on that just yet, and there’d no doubt be other opportunities, with events we can scarcely imagine, in the coming months.

#BREAKING Joe Biden Withdraws

While I was writing this the announcement came that Biden was withdrawing from the Presidential race. I think it’s the right thing to do, I genuinely don't think he could beat Trump in the key states, yet it feels sad too. Now it's up to the DNC to find someone to defeat Trump - what could possibly go wrong with that? No doubt more to say in coming days.

Back to our story, and yesterday morning…

Feeling uninspired it was time to make coffee. Fi emerged saying she was off to see her mum so she poured the flat white into a travel cup and asked if I’d like to join her. My apologies dear readers, it wasn’t a difficult choice.

Although I did slightly regret it when we got into a minor disagreement over the meaning of a word on the way. Which word is unimportant, all you really need to know is she was right. Not in a boastful way, or an I-told-you-so way, but simply because her position aligned with the facts. Don’t you just hate that?

So a lovely time having morning tea and watching the boats come in and out, although it did mean that by the time we got home there was still no newsletter and no topic.

Sunday means Q&A. I saw that G News had posted a clip from that morning’s programme which certainly suggested there was plenty to write about. In case you didn’t see it you can check out that short clip here:

The problem being that people simply don’t want to know about climate change. It’s not that they necessarily flat out deny it’s existence, more so that they’s simply rather not read about it. Aren’t we doing that Paris thingy? Isn’t that enough? Are we supposed to change our lifestyle just so we can save the planet?

Surveys show that Climate Change is not a key issue for voters and so politicians focus on achieving prosperity and not worrying too much about the climate. Preferring the illusion of economic growth while ignoring the scare mongers in the room.

Despite the obvious fact that all the savings from cutting climate change initiatives, from failing to take real action, and the temporary gains from irresponsible economic activity will be swept away by the next hundred year flood - which is now a near annual event.

People don’t want to talk about it. It’s not sexy, it doesn’t sell, to be honest you’d have to ask who in their right mind would keep banging on about climate change when clearly punters don’t want it.

Continuing my search I came across a post from your fellow reader Julia. You might recall my writing about her involvement with Aotearoa Covid Action in this newsletter on submissions to the Covid enquiry.

I read Julia’s post about information out of the UK on the effects of Covid on the brain and it clicked, that’s what I should write about. If there’s one subject people are less interested in reading about than Climate Change, to the point of angry opposition when it’s spoken about with facts and evidence - it’s Covid.

This newsletter began as daily updates during the lockdowns. Covid has been, and remains, one of the most significant events of our time in terms of the impact on society, on how people see the media and politicians, and even the degree to which some trust public health advice. But no one wants to read about it any more.

It’s done, it’s over, we’ve moved on. We’ve learned to live with it in the same way that I assume those disinterested in climate change must imagine they’ll just live with the results of that. Presumably by evolving gills and webbed feet, which is quite a long term solution.

However I make no apologies for writing about Covid again. I think it’s important to write about things that people don’t want to read - even if that doesn’t make for a great pitch to would-be subscribers.

Reality is we’re not learning “to live with it”, we’re learning to accept people dying from it. I sent Julia a message and despite it being quite late on a Sunday evening she was happy to have a chat, and for me to share it with you. So at this point it’s over to Julia, she begins by talking about James Throt, a Consultant Neuropathologist from the UK who for sadly obvious reasons uses an alias.

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Julia Schiller

We actually have a dire problem here: so many of our "leaders", in both politics and public health, have already had Covid, in some cases multiple times (and so many of us have too, though Aotearoa NZ is not as far down the track as the UK where this medical expert is sounding their caution from).

Even pre-Covid, I'd noticed that the ways I'd been taught/learned to be politically effective (e.g. petitions, gathering facts and presenting them to the relevant authority, getting media attention) just weren't terribly effective. I have no idea how to get through to authorities whose judgment and risk assessment is literally seriously impaired.

Honestly, being Covid-aware/cautious is like living in an alternate reality. You seem to pick up on things others are missing. Have you noticed an increase in media stories about episodes of rage, for example toward supermarket workers, road repair crews, on planes, etc? If you mask, have you sat on a train or bus or in an airport and witnessed unmasked people coughing away, sometimes not even trying to cover their mouths, and other people around them don't seem worried at all?

Humanity is surrendering to a level three biohazard, a virus whose spread we know how to stop. Yes, just at the moment our 6th wave seems to be receding, but it doesn't seem to be through much conscious effort on our part, and in places that have had it worse for longer, the waves are barely receding any more.

I remember how shocked I was to learn that this virus, which Kiwis worked so hard together to contain, in true communitarian spirit, was now just free to rip. It made me suspicious and I started trying to stay informed on my own since mainstream news and public health had become a joke. That this policy (let it rip) continued even after it became clear that the vaccines were barely preventative is frankly, criminal. If anything, the vaccines have been a double-edged sword, as more people survive their first or second infection, unaware of any lingering ill effects (which can be silent, such as blood pressure or cognitive changes) and erroneously conclude that Covid is no big thing.

I assure you it is a huge thing and that preventing re/infection should be at the top of your personal list of life goals (mask like your life depends on it, preferably with N95s) but it should not all be on individuals and "personal responsibility". For example, we must have adequate ventilation and air purification in public places yesterday, starting with places like schools, rest homes, medical facilities, and mass transit, but that can only be achieved with collective action.

We have clean water standards, and hence no more cholera (knock on wood with our Coalition of Cruelty in power), clean air is the next frontier.... but I am open to suggestion about how the hell we can achieve anything given all these obstacles.

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Julia referred readers to a Twitter thread, which for those unfamiliar with that platform are a series of short messages, or tweets, that enables someone to use more than the usual character limit. This initial tweet had received over a million views:

I’m aware that many of you prefer not to use the Twitter platform so I’m going to reproduce the rest of the author’s messages below. Over to James… his words in italics.

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Now before we delve deeper into this, I think it would be felicitous to provide a little background first. MRI brain imaging has previously revealed that Covid reduces the thickness of grey matter within the frontal and temporal lobes. This would mimic symptoms of Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD).

You can read more about FTD here, including the symptoms:

• Behaviour or personality changes, such as swearing, stealing, more interest in sex, or a decline in hygiene habits

• Socially inappropriate, impulsive, or repetitive behaviours

• Impaired judgment

• Apathy

• Lack of empathy

• Decreased self awareness

• Loss of interest in normal daily activities

• Emotional withdrawal from others

So to the questions. I am going to show you a wide spectrum of symptoms which arise from damage to the frontal and temporal lobes. I will be using the NHS’s definition of Frontotemporal Dementia for reference. Are you noticing one or more of the following in yourself/others?

Are you noticing one or more of the following in yourself or others? Since we are at a very early stage in the progression of such damage, these symptoms could be mild/subtle versions of one or more of these, but should not be disregarded, especially if they’re new or worsening.

It should also be noted that damage to this specific area of the brain within the cerebral cortex can cause sociopathic behaviour. Additionally, this induces the “slow and insidious loss of the capacity for moral rationality.”

The final question to ask yourself is how might this manifest itself amongst the general population and what might we start to see? Or are we already seeing it? Think hard. Because if you yourself have such damage, this won’t be easy to recognise due to “impaired judgement”.

It will be challenging to recognise this happening to yourself because damage to this area of the brain specifically causes decreased self-awareness. Patients with FTD rarely ever recognise the alterations in themselves, and rely upon others to notice such changes early on.

To be absolutely clear, the damage right now is slight. Many people are only on covid infection number one or two. The damage will be compounded in those with repeated infections. The progression of such damage can be very slow, so noticing early signs is of paramount importance

As a side note, Alzheimer’s (AD) can take many years to evolve. Preclinical AD can last for decades and you wouldn’t notice any symptoms during this stage. I am using AD as an example to show how slow neurological disorders can progress, although progression can be rapid.

Facts are indisputable (so don’t claim otherwise) and they are backed entirely by evidence: Covid damages the frontal and temporal lobes. Damage to this region of the brain would mimic/cause symptoms of Frontotemporal Dementia.

Piece that puzzle together.

End.

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This feels like something that should be talked about, at least so that people are aware. Ignorance may be bliss but it’s not the best way of dealing with reality.

As I’ve written recently I’m finding that I don’t get subscriptions from free content so I’d been intending to paywall this one, but given the content that wouldn’t have been appropriate. So this newsletter is available to everyone if you’d like to share it.

If you would like to help fund the production of more newsletters that people don’t want to read that would be really appreciated. 🙂

I asked Julia if she had any suggestions for a song and she mentioned liking this one, I do too. An Ordinary World sounds good, we’d all prefer not to have to worry about Covid or Climate Change - but we can’t achieve that by sticking our heads in the sand.