James Throt MBBS, MD, PhD, FRCPath Profile picture
Aug 22, 2025 22 tweets 3 min read Read on X
As a neurologist, I can’t ignore what I’ve been noticing, both professionally and socially.

People are not the same as they were before the pandemic.

The way they communicate, interact, and connect feels… different.

I want to know if you’re feeling this too?

🧵
@monaktrix Large cohort studies, cognitive testing, and neuroimaging show measurable deficits post-covid.

Population level patterns reveal widespread frontal lobe impacts, even if not every individual is formally tested.
@monaktrix The result? Subtle reductions in insight, moral reasoning, and empathy.

Severity & frequency of infection matter, but individual outcomes vary.
@Jo10030676 @artfulhome1 I did elaborate after that tweet you’ve replied to…
@suzy_dalli You truly believe that repeated neurological insult to the frontal executive region would remain asymptomatic forever?
@JulianRLewis To ignore COVID’s neurological impact is like trying to explain rising dementia rates purely as a cultural trend.

Biology and society are intertwined.

Pretending otherwise is denial.
@lcracraft If you believe you’re all infected at the same rate as the general population, then your Covid conscious lifestyle choices etc are a complete waste of time.
@FenixFella @faithfulpolaris But SARS-CoV-2 is different.

It directly infects vascular/neuronal tissue, breaches the blood–brain barrier, and leaves measurable grey matter loss.

Stress may exacerbate, but viral neuropathology is unique & documented.
@SarahIrvine_8 You have completely rewritten history. Egregiously so.

What a completely dishonest account of what actually happened.

Utter hyperbole.
@TeresaRatcliffe Oh, and a Christian. It just gets better and better.
@7ee6an @AspLovePolitics I’m not inventing anything new; I’m connecting dots that are already peer-reviewed. The fact that the public hasn’t internalised these findings is precisely why popularising science is necessary.
The comments here are a cesspit of denial, minimisation, antivax tropes, lockdown hyperbole, evidence dismissal & disinformation

Above all, they show an unwillingness to accept that a virus proven to damage the frontal lobe might explain symptoms of frontal lobe damage

No hope
For the fallacies being spouted about lockdowns, children & their recent developmental/behavioural issues, please read this thread.

It saves me having to address every nonsense reply.

My god, if ever there was proof of cognitive decline in 2025, the comments here provide it.
Actually, this entire thread is unequivocally wrong.

Proof of SARS-CoV-2 damaging the frontal lobe would not lead to presentations of frontal lobe dysfunction.

It’s far more likely to be attributed to smart phones (invented 2007)/social media (2006)/a few months of lockdown

/s
@influenya Also, the surge in aggression, poor impulse control & antisocial behaviour wasn’t apparent immediately post-lockdown in 2021, nor throughout 2022.

These trends have emerged more recently, consistent with the timeline of repeated SARS-CoV-2 infections rather than brief isolation.
@Ester__Island @AspLovePolitics My job isn’t to spoon feed intellectually challenged individuals on Twitter, by the way.
@henrybenedict_X One is reversible performance fluctuation, the other is measurable neurological insult.

Huge difference.
Important clarification: aggression, poor impulse control & antisocial behaviour trending today did not appear immediately post-lockdowns in 2021–22

These changes emerged more recently, consistent w/cumulative neurological impact from repeat infections, not short-term isolation.
@Mallory71148207 Probably appropriate to mention this whilst we’re at it…
@Elizabe49818821 @putxiwhipped4 @influenya Stress alone can’t explain measurable olfactory bulb atrophy, hippocampal shrinkage, or reduced frontal lobe activity.

Those show up consistently in peer-reviewed COVID neuroimaging and autopsy.
@Elizabe49818821 @characternugget Both show frontal-executive damage after COVID.

But of course, I know you’ll pretend you know better than the world’s top journals.

That’s just two major journals. The evidence is there, your ignorance of it doesn’t make it disappear.
@craigthomler @Artfulgiant256 Social bond decay ≠ neuronal injury.

Let’s not conflate feelings with proven neuropathology.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with James Throt MBBS, MD, PhD, FRCPath

James Throt MBBS, MD, PhD, FRCPath Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @JamesThrot

Dec 9, 2025
You don’t have to be a neurologist to see patterns.

Everyone I know who avoids mitigation looks noticeably different from their pre-covid selves. In temperament, in consistency, in emotional regulation, in decision making.

The changes are everywhere. People just normalised them
A key problem we have is that neurological changes often impair the very systems needed to notice those changes.

It’s an anosognosia-like loop.

The more dysregulated someone becomes, the more convinced they are that nothing is wrong.
At population level, impairment camouflages itself.

If everyone’s executive function declines a little, the new baseline feels ‘normal’.

People compare themselves to the surrounding decline, not their pre-2020 selves.
Read 6 tweets
Dec 6, 2025
And COVID is making an ever increasing proportion of people fall into that weak/vulnerable category that capitalism is happy to throw to the wolves.

Eventually, EVERYONE who is doing nothing to prevent repeat SARS-CoV-2 infections will be weak/vulnerable. This is what COVID does
People think vulnerability is a fixed trait. It isn’t.

With SARS-CoV-2, it’s a moving target.

And repeat infections keep moving it toward them.

Cumulative damage always catches up.

Keep letting a brain-damaging virus rip and the ‘vulnerable’ category expands year after year.
Call it denial, call it normalisation, call it whatever you want. COVID doesn’t care.

If you keep getting reinfected at your current rate, the virus will eventually put you in the category you thought only applied to ‘other people’.

This is your inevitable trajectory.
Read 7 tweets
Nov 26, 2025
If you still believe COVID left the population “unchanged”, open a dating app. It sounds absurd, but stay with me here.

The cognitive bluntness is so widespread that the dating platforms themselves have had to acknowledge behavioural deterioration since 2020.

It’s not subtle🧵
Since 2020, apps report the same pattern: shorter messages, less reciprocity, fewer follow-ups, lower meet-up rates & a collapse in sustained conversational ability.

This isn’t just “people being tired”. It’s a measurable degradation of attention, initiative & social cognition.
The cause?

- repeated COVID infections impairing cognitive stamina/reward processing

- chronic low-grade fatigue

- dopamine systems altered by COVID/crises

- widespread emotional numbing

- increased avoidance as default coping mechanism

All the above = social “flatlining”
Read 17 tweets
Nov 24, 2025
Oh they know.

The reason any utter of the word “COVID” is met with awkward silence, abrupt subject changes, or mockery is no coincidence.

That’s what denial looks like when the stakes are too high for people to admit what they already sense.

You’re letting them off too easily.
Universal internet access & AI at everyone’s fingertips in year 6/7 of COVID. Yet we’re still pretending the public is merely “uninformed”?

This isn’t a knowledge gap, it’s deliberate avoidance, a psychological defence to shield people from the consequences of their own choices.
And here’s the part people pretend not to understand: we don’t rely on governments or legacy media for any other major issue

Nobody waits for official guidance to form opinions on Gaza, Epstein, climate collapse, corruption/surveillance. People “do their own research” constantly
Read 6 tweets
Nov 16, 2025
There’s a pervasive misunderstanding in conversations about COVID’s neurological impact.

Many people assume that saying “frontal lobe damage reduces empathy” means everyone who’s had COVID instantly becomes amoral & unethical.

That’s reductionism at its finest. 🧵
Frontal lobe impairment is not an on/off switch.

Someone with naturally high empathy can still appear extremely empathetic, even if their capacity has measurably declined.

It’s a shift, not a reset.
At the population level, repeated SARS-CoV-2 infections subtly alter impulse control, moral reasoning and susceptibility to manipulation.

This doesn’t mean every individual loses morality, but society-wide trends can shift in meaningful ways.
Read 6 tweets
Nov 15, 2025
Let’s talk about one of the most dangerous and under-discussed consequences of SARS-CoV-2: neurological damage. More specifically, frontal lobe dysfunction.

This is being deliberately downplayed, in part due to a misguided weaponisation of “ableism” discourse. That’s a problem🧵
Here’s the truth.

SARS-CoV-2 is a neurotropic virus. It can invade the central nervous system, either directly or through inflammatory damage.

It’s been detected in brain tissue, and it can cause lasting neurological impairment.

This is not speculative.
The frontal lobe governs executive function, impulse control, empathy, moral reasoning & inhibition. Damage here can lead to:

- Aggression
- Impulsivity
- Gullibility
- Bigotry
- Loss of social inhibition
- Apathy
- Antisocial traits

This is basic neurobiology, not ableism.
Read 12 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(