Covid infection increases car crashes

And other infections

Today’s article will be to the point, although it follows exceedingly long-term trends, one of which is especially of concern and interest to me. Context to refresh your memory, given how many topics and complex interactions I cover.

Throughout the rise of Omicron, using my analytical framework, I accurately forecasted (I heavily dislike the word predict) the significant increase in microvascular damage, and among the many effects, the cognitive burden it would cause. Given the nature of my workout throughout the last decade (forecasting), I somewhat dislike the retroactive aspect of “waiting for data”, thus, I left a few statements by which the easiest tell of this cognitive burden would be the easily measurable increase in car crashes.

The paper can be found here. I will now selectively quote the introduction, written by the author, and interject shortly after.

One such cognitively demanding task is driving, which relies heavily on psychomotor speed, executive function, and visual processing [23,24]. It is well established that impairments in these domains, as seen in conditions such as ADHD and dementia, correlate with an increased risk of motor vehicle crashes

Another aspect of the neurological changes induced by acute infection is behavioral changes, such as increased risk-taking, but my focus has been on the structural and immunological changes. If you kept track of any recent article covering Covid’s impact and damage in the brain, your memory will instantly connect which cognitive functions we rely to drive with places that are commonly affected by SARS-CoV-2.

This paper is essentially a large-scale statistical analysis, using several US states data between 2020 to 2023. The author wanted to observe if there was a link between spike in SARS-CoV-2 acute infection and the same states experiencing an increase in car crashes.

Higher rates of SARS-CoV-2 acute infection are associated with higher rates of car crashes, an increase of approximately 25%. Even when carefully accounting for other variables such as population size of each state, early lockdown months, and vaccination rates, the association between infection and crashes persisted, and it was actually higher, reaching around a 44% increase.

Contrary to the “evidence” published so far that higher vaccination rates protect against car crashes (ridiculous article), the data here points towards a marginal protective effect at best. The study points towards the vaccine offering no protection against car crashes. Incidentally, the risk of acute infection is analogous (almost equal) to driving impairment seen in alcohol consumption at legal limits.


This second paper is something I have been following since… 2020, and thanks to my reader Dee for getting the full paper for me.

Rates of infection with other pathogens after a positive COVID-19 test versus a negative test in US veterans (November, 2021, to December, 2023): a retrospective cohort study

To preface this paper, one of the authors consults for Pfizer.

Our results suggest that a positive test for COVID-19 (vs a negative test) was associated with increased rates of diagnosis of various infections in the 12 months following an acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. The putative long-term effects of COVID-19 on the immune system and the propensity for infection with other pathogens should be further evaluated in future studies.

Throughout the years, I have covered multiple papers that retrospectively analyse data as a means to understand the long-term impacts of SARS-CoV-2 on rates of other infectious diseases. I recently wrote about the rate of other pathogens, mostly respiratory in nature, in children and adolescents. But we don’t have many follow-up studies or data analysis, these are difficult to set up properly, costly (a problem now, with funding cuts at large), and take considerable time on all ends.

This is a large study with 836.913 VA users. Patient characteristics with age, race, sex, smoking status, and vaccination status. A substantial number of the people in this study were vaccinated. Although it is interesting to note, based on the data here, the rate of hospitalization between unvaccinated and vaccinated is almost identical (they differ by .13%).

While the authors weigh vaccination status in their analysis, they do not take into consideration that, for calculating the rate of infection of diverse pathogens, it would be helpful overall if such differentiation were done. The data revealed a consistent pattern.

Over a period of 12 months, acute infection, even without hospitalization, had a significant increase in infection with diverse pathogens. Acute infection alone without hospitalization increases the chance of:

• Diagnosed with any other infectious disease by 17%

• Other respiratory infections by an insane 46% (adenovirus, human metapneumovirus, influenza virus A, parainfluenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus, and rhinovirus)

• 16% increase in antibiotic use, 19% increase in the risk of being hospitalized for any reason

• 41% increase in being hospitalized because of an infection

• 49% for being hospitalized by a respiratory infection

• 43% increase in risk of hospitalization for sepsis

• A significant increase of 42% in antibiotic usage in the case of hospitalization

• Increased rate for positive bacterial infections, and viral reactivation (polyomavirus 1, cytomegalovirus, Epstein–Barr virus, and herpes simplex virus)

• Increased rates of fungal infection (Coccidioides)

Hospitalized Covid patients experienced even higher risks of these subsequent infections compared to the control group (negative for SARS-CoV-2), with their risk being higher than non-hospitalized patients. They used Influenza infection as a specific comparison point, and Covid patients faced a higher risk of infectious diagnoses, hospitalization for infections, and sepsis.

The Long-term consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection - Part II

In the article above, you can see a precise breakdown of the long-term effects of a SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially Omicron (the paper we just went through covers pre-Omicron infections mostly), and how being unvaccinated or vaccinated differs in the impact.

This paper adds to the growing pile of evidence on the “immunological hole” an infection leaves you with, especially over the long term, which has been an argument of mine for the better part of 2023 and 2024. Largely, the problem is not a mild infection, however uncomfortable it is, but the long-term effects, and any secondary infection instigating the initiation of a pathological feedback loop, which can have lasting effects and long-term consequences.

Addressing this remains the same, supplementation with whatever you are comfortable with, but specifically limiting inflammation as hard as you can. As things stand, hospital and healthcare systems around the world will keep experiencing sudden surges that overwhelm the system, as supply chains remain strained and shortages persist.

Taking care of your health should be your priority right now, given the state of geopolitics and the potential of India going to war with Pakistan. India is one of the biggest producers of API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients), with China remaining at the top.

Also, since I would rather avoid one e-mail/article just for this, 2 weeks ago, the FDA fast-tracked and approved a new mRNA vaccine, from Arcturus Therapeutics, for Influenza A H5N1, commonly known as Bird Flu. And as I forewarned multiple times, the pandemic treaty was finally agreed upon and is now legally binding (the good news is the US is out of it).

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