The most recent long-term effect seems to be an acceleration of the aging process of young brains.
A group of researchers from the University of Washington examined 160 teenagers, ranging in age from nine to seventeen. In 2018, they collected data for an unrelated study on adolescent brain structural changes, but the COVID outbreak halted that investigation.
Lead author Neva Corrigan, Ph.D., a research scientist at the University of Washington, stated in a press release that “once the pandemic was underway, we started to think about which brain measures would allow us to estimate what the pandemic lockdown had done to the brain.”
SURVEY FINDINGS THAT COVID VACCINE DISTRUST AMONG AMERICANS IS GROWING: “SHOULD BE A PERSONAL CHOICE”
“What did it mean for our teens to be at home rather than in their social groups — not at school, not playing sports, not hanging out?”
Teenage brains aged more quickly than they should have due to the pandemic, the researchers discovered.
