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James Throt MBBS, MD, PhD, FRCPath Profile picture
James Throt MBBS, MD, PhD, FRCPath
@JamesThrot
Consultant Neuropathologist, UK. I dissect brains for a living. Always backed by science. Using an alias.
19 subscribers
Oct 21 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
SARS-CoV-2 brain damage is real, happening with every infection.

Many of you are on infection number 6+, asymptomatic cases count.

It damages the region (frontal lobe) that governs empathy, compassion & the internal brake that stops us from saying or doing inappropriate things. Which is why you now see it spilling into public life, a White House Press Secretary thinking “your mom” is an appropriate response to a journalist.

Leaders across the world saying things once unthinkable, blurting out cruelty, absurdity, and arrogance in equal measure.
Oct 8 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
Since I’m a neuropathologist, I’ll put my two cents into this MND discussion.

SARS-CoV-2 isn’t just a respiratory virus. Emerging evidence shows it can infect human motor neurons. Could this link to motor neuron disease (MND)?

Let’s break down the neuropathology. 🧵 Direct infection of motor neurons:

SARS-CoV-2 enters via ACE2, NRP1, CD147 receptors and can replicate inside neurons.

These long, metabolically demanding cells are highly vulnerable to injury.
Oct 7 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
All the “there’s no evidence SARS-CoV-2 causes brain damage” takes I’ve seen are weak, unscientific, and often just opinion masquerading as fact.

Let’s break this down with actual facts, rather than mere conjecture. 🧵 Marc Veldhoen states: There was no lymphopenia, no superantigen, no immune damage/dysfunction/exhaustion. There are no large outbreaks of infections. Furthermore, there are no increases in cancers due to SARS-CoV-2 infection, no compounded risk of longCovid, etc. Now it is brain damage.
Marc Veldhoen states: Sneaky, nobody can see it, and nobody can be aware..... so they will always be right. They will blame everything and anything on SARS-CoV-2, regardless of its lack of plausibility or the absence of actual evidence. And all the ZeroCovid accounts are at it! Claim: “No lymphopenia, no immune dysfunction, no long COVID.”

Fact: Multiple peer-reviewed studies show SARS-CoV-2 does cause lymphocyte depletion, immune exhaustion, and long-term neurological effects.

Denial ≠ evidence.
Oct 5 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
You fixate on coughs/fever/hospitalisation

Meanwhile, billions w/no obvious symptoms are sustaining brain damage

Empathy. Logic. Foresight

Invisible, ignored, unstoppable

You’re all acting like nothing is happening

Covid isn’t just a virus. It’s a quiet collapse of humanity. While we worry about obvious Covid complications, billions w/out symptoms are suffering hidden brain damage

Impulse control/inhibition/foresight/conscience are quietly eroding

Humanity is losing its mind, one silent infection at a time

Compassion is on the brink of extinction.
Oct 3 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
🧵 Attribution Bias: The Hidden Fuel of COVID Denial

One of the main reasons society refuses to face the ongoing damage of SARS-CoV-2 is attribution bias

It’s not that the harms aren’t there, they’re everywhere

It’s that people are misattributing them to the wrong causes

1/9 Brain fog? Must just be “stress.”

Shortness of breath? Must be “getting older.”

Heart palpitations? Probably “anxiety.”

Cognitive slips? “Too much screen time.”

Anything, literally anything, but admitting that repeat COVID infections are the cause.

2/
Sep 18 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
As a neuropathologist with decades of experience studying dementia, Alzheimer’s & viral brain injury…

I know exactly how brain damage presents itself.

I’m seeing this unfold at a population level each & every day.

SARS-CoV-2 is inflicting neurological harm on a global scale. For the “Correlation isn’t causation” crowd:

Covid is neurotropic, it directly infects the brain. It causes vascular injury/clotting/neurodegeneration.

We’re not guessing. The mechanism is established. The population-level consequences are what you’re watching unfold right now.
Sep 18 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
We don’t live in a free society.

We live in one where obedience is disguised as opportunity.

Where exhaustion is called “hard work.”

Where exploitation is sold as “luck.”

This is modern slavery with a smile.

A thread 🧵 It starts in school. We were told it’s about “education,” but the real lesson is obedience:

- Be on time, every day
- Sit still, don’t question authority
- Complete every assignment, no matter how absurd
- Face punishment if you refuse

i.e. Training for a lifetime of compliance
Aug 27 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
“My baby had Covid and was fine”

Did your baby tell you how their endothelial function, immune system & neurodevelopment are doing compared to baseline?

Did they explain their risk profile for future disease?

Or are you just guessing because they didn’t drop dead on the spot? SARS-CoV-2 isn’t harmless in babies.

Infections are linked to disrupted brain development, higher risk of neurological disorders (incl. autism spectrum, seizures, developmental delay), immune dysregulation & heart damage.

Babies can’t self report.

Fine today ≠ fine long term.
Aug 15 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
The neurological toll of COVID is vastly underestimated

Brain scans can look “normal” while things too subtle for MRI detection; microvascular damage, neuroinflammation, and synaptic loss… quietly erode cognition, mood & behaviour

We are flying blind on the scale of impairment MRI is a blunt tool for subtle brain injury.

It can’t resolve microvascular lesions, detect most neuroinflammation, or see lost synaptic connections.

Many COVID-related brain changes are chemical or cellular, leaving scans ‘normal’ while function is impaired.
Aug 14 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
A-level results are out in the UK. Record numbers of students got their first choice university place. Politicians call this a “success story.”

But how is this possible when SARS-CoV-2 has been repeatedly disrupting education and damaging brain health?

🧠🧵 Image Let’s remember:

- Covid disrupts learning through illness, teacher absences, and long-term symptoms/chronic health.

- Many children have been infected multiple times (5-10 times already).

- Each infection increases the risk of ongoing symptoms and neurological effects. Image
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Aug 13 • 18 tweets • 6 min read
Surging aggression. Language delays. Developmental issues. Teachers & parents report major changes in children

Lockdowns are often blamed. But many lockdowns were short (e.g. UK)

So what else changed in early childhood since 2020?

I’m a neurologist. Let's talk COVID & brains🧵 Let's be clear: lockdowns may have had an impact on some children, especially in unsafe homes or w/poor digital access. That shouldn't be denied.

But what we're seeing now goes far beyond what short-term isolation would explain, especially in children born after lockdowns ended.
Aug 10 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
How Covid brain damage fuels social & political chaos in UK & USA 🧵

The UK & US face unprecedented strain on healthcare & social trust

Political discourse often scapegoats immigrants/minorities, ignoring a major driver:

The pandemic’s lasting & ongoing neurological toll

1/11 Image
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Image SARS-CoV-2 is neurotropic; it infects brain tissue, especially the frontal cortex, critical for empathy, impulse control, and decision-making.

Research shows repeat infections cause cumulative cognitive impairments & damage.

This inevitably erodes social reasoning.

2/
Aug 8 • 14 tweets • 5 min read
Surging aggression. Language delays. Dysregulation. Developmental issues. Teachers & parents are seeing major changes in children.

Lockdowns are often blamed. But UK lockdowns were short. So what else changed in early childhood since 2020?

Let’s talk about COVID. And brains. 🧵 Image
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Image Let’s be clear: lockdowns may have had an impact on some children, especially in unsafe homes or w/poor digital access. That shouldn’t be denied.

But what we’re seeing now goes far beyond what short-term isolation would explain, especially in children born after lockdowns ended.
Jul 30 • 21 tweets • 5 min read
🧵 Thread: Why don’t people take COVID seriously in Year 6 of the pandemic?

A virus that disables the immune system, damages the brain, heart, and vasculature.

And spreads like smoke.

Yet the world shrugs.

Why?

Because mass denial is doing what it always does.

1/18 Image
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Image When a threat is chronic, invisible, and socially inconvenient, people don’t rationally evaluate it, they emotionally suppress it.

Denial becomes a survival mechanism. Especially in societies offering zero support for caution, it’s easier to numb out than face reality.

2/
Jul 14 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
The following question has been on my mind. So to the covid cautious community, I ask:

If you know that the virus, SARS-CoV-2, is harmful, persistent and disabling, why do some of you still participate in systems, relationships, behaviours, and events that perpetuate its spread? Many of you claim to understand and oppose the ongoing harms of SARS-CoV-2, but continue to participate in, and normalise, environments and events that fuel its spread.

Participation legitimises the harm, does it not?
Jul 5 • 11 tweets • 5 min read
Covid damages the part of your brain (frontal lobe) which is responsible for empathy, emotional regulation & overcoming self-centeredness.

This will facilitate immorality.

Each & every infection you have causes damage.

Many are on infection 4 (or more).

Signed, a neurologist. Unless you’re taking measures to prevent infection, you’re catching SARS-CoV-2 frequently. Many infections are asymptomatic.

Each new infection will compound the brain damage, causing new issues that previous infections may not have done.

You are gambling with your cognition. Image
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Apr 2 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
After targeted harassment & defamation, I’ve realised that people want to insist that doctors take all SARS-CoV-2 sequelae seriously, except for neurological sequelae/brain damage.

I’ve been called ableist & bigoted for stating that damage can negatively affect behaviour.

🧵 Suggesting that an increase in violent behaviour, diminishing empathy, increasing apathy & emotional lability, decreasing risk aversion & more disinhibition could be a result of damage to the frontal & temporal lobes in the brain is apparently ableist & bigoted.

Yet it is fact.
Mar 31 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
Lol.

Most people keep getting sick w/a few months respite between infections (Covid, flu, norovirus, take your pick).

What in gods name do people think Long Covid is?

“Yeah I get sick all the time since I had Covid & I’ve had that several times. But I don’t have long covid” 😂 My dude, that’s Long Covid.

“Erm no it’s not. I just keep getting sick”.

And what does it mean if you keep getting sick?

“Erm that my immune system isn’t working properly… [long thoughtful pause]”

Immune system damage sounds like Long Covid to me.

“You could be right”

I am
Mar 11 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
In neurology/psychiatry, we would call this Apathy.

Brain damage to the frontal lobe (dorsal anterior cingulate cortex) causes apathy & reduces empathy.

SARS-CoV-2 damages this region of the brain. Every. Single. Time.

More infections = more damage = more apathy.

🧵 Increase in apathy is often seen in traumatic brain injury, stroke & dementia.

It manifests as a lack of motivation/enthusiasm due to disruption in the brain regions responsible for goal directed behavior & reward processing.

Resulting in a lack of drive to engage in activities
Mar 10 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
“They create the idea of a terrifying plague that will kill us all, when the truth is far less frightening”

The truth is SARS-CoV-2 likely won’t kill you today, nor tomorrow.

But it will damage the brain, internal organs, blood vessels & immune system of everyone it infects. “Well covid did me no harm”

- You can lose up to 90% kidney function before experiencing any symptoms.

- Cancers often develop silently with symptoms only appearing at a more advanced stage.

- Blood clots develop silently.

- Brain damage often goes unnoticed by the sufferer.
Mar 8 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
Does anybody else feel that blaming a few months of lockdown for ill health in 2025, both physical & mental, is not only disingenuous & delusional, but a crusade to spread disinformation?

The public lap it up so they can reassure themselves the threat has vanished into thin air. We have outrageous hyperbole, as in the quoted tweet below, and almost everyone in the comments agree.

Peter is UK based, where lockdowns for the youngest children & those in year 6 lasted just 10 weeks, returning on 01/06/2020.

All other ages returned in September 2020. Image
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