Summer Bonus: Convince your friends that Covid is really bad for you.

Bonus list of must-read articles on Covid

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

Welcome to the latest Summer 2025 Bonus Issue of the Covid-Is-Not-Over newsletter!

These bonus issues are basically collections of links that I haven’t been able to use for the regular newsletter. This one is all about how Covid is still actually bad for you and it’s worth dedicating time and effort to avoid getting infected.

I’ll have weeklyish bonus issues before I resume regular newslettering sometime around the end of July or the beginning of August. Forthcoming issues will probably focus on Long Covid, looming pandemics & surging infectious diseases and how the world has changed because of Covid. Not necessarily in that order.

But we’ll see. No guarantees about number of issues, timing and content. I’ll probably be including Must Read Articles and Musical Interludes in the bonuses, but, then again, I may not.

The whole purpose of these bonus issues is to get something out that I hope you will all find useful but that I don’t have to work too hard on. What with it being summer and all, that seems like the best idea. My focus will be on rest, relaxation and recharging.

With that, I’ll just stop typing.

Top Articles Everyone Should Read on Covid

• What COVID-19 Does to the Body (Eighth Edition, June 2025) / Pandemic Accountability Index

• ANSWERED: Is COVID-19 Harmful to Children? A Compilation of Peer-Reviewed Medical Research / Pandemic Accountability Index

• Immunity Debt: The Conspiracy Theory Elevated to Popular Pseudoscience That Is Making Children Sick / LIL_Science

• You Have To Live Your Life

• "You Have to Live Your Life:" Responses to Common COVID Minimizing Phrases

• Simple things you can do to avoid COVID by Lucky Tran / Aranet

• COVID Incubation Period: Key Facts and Guidelines by Sarah Hudgens / Health

• Calm-mongering: Fine-tuning the potential emotional impact of risk is not the same as managing it by Arijit Chakravarty and T. Ryan Gregory / Monkeys on Typewriters

• Why is EVERYONE more SICK? by Lola Germs

• Covid-19: Will It Mutate To Nothingness? by Rawat Deonandan

• Everything "That Friend" Wants You to Know About Covid by Jessica Wildfire / OK Doomer

• Coronavirus Disease 2019 and Airborne Transmission: Science Rejected, Lives Lost. Can Society Do Better? by Lidia Morawska, William Bahnfleth, et al. / Clinical Infectious Diseases

• Real Impact of COVID-19 Infection and Why We Should Care by Jeff Gilchrist, PhD

• Navigating the Long Haul: A Comprehensive Review of Long-COVID Sequelae, Patient Impact, Pathogenesis, and Management by Nishant Rathod Jr., Sunil Kumar, et al. / Cureus

• A TALE OF TWO TECHNOLOGIES: Far-UVC light disinfection and mRNA vaccines are both potent life saving technologies. In the fight against Covid-19, one was thrust into the limelight, while the other languished in the shadows by Nicola Jane Boyd / Matters of Perspective

As most have probably noticed, there is no paid subscription option for this newsletter. However, Substack does have an option where subscribers can pledge to subscribe “just in case” and a few kind subscribers have made that pledge. I very much appreciated the vote of confidence in what I’m doing here. What I’ve decided to do on a trial basis is to set up a “tip jar” on the Ko-fi platform. I’m not anticipating a huge surge of income from using Ko-fi but whatever revenue I do end up with, I plan to spend on supporting artists on Bandcamp.

Covid is Still Really Bad for You (Since December 2024)

• Long-term Risk of Heart Attack, Stroke and Death Doubles with History of COVID-19 Infection

• COVID-19 Takes a Greater Toll on Kidneys Than Pneumonia

• Covid Pregnancies May Have Boosted Autism Risk, Study Shows

• The pandemic's untold fertility story: Long COVID is snuffing out patients' dreams of having children - ABC News

• Health Department Finds Most Adult New Yorkers Infected With COVID-19 Experienced Symptoms Lasting One Month or Longer

• COVID-19 is a trigger of autoimmune rheumatic diseases: a hypothesis tested over time | Rheumatology International

• Long-term Risk of Heart Attack, Stroke and Death Doubles with History of COVID-19 Infection

• Almost 10% of US lung transplants go to COVID-19 patients. Researchers are learning why

• Neurological post-COVID syndrome is associated with substantial impairment of verbal short-term and working memory | Scientific Reports

• COVID-19 infection linked to increased cases of ME/CFS

• Immune system damage from COVID-19 is different from HIV/AIDS — but the advocacy has parallels - The Sick Times

• Exploring the long-term neurological consequences of COVID-19

• How the virus behind COVID-19 can harm your blood vessels and your heart

• Patients who have had multiple COVID infections appear prone to contracting long COVID

• Exploring the long-term neurological consequences of COVID-19

• Abstract 181: Acute Ischemic Stroke And Endovascular Thrombectomy During COVID‐19 Pandemic: A Nationwide Analysis

• Risk for rapid kidney decline greater with COVID-19 vs. pneumonia

• If You’ve Had COVID-19, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Could Be Next

• Kidney Function Decline After COVID-19 Infection | Acute Kidney Injury | JAMA Network Open

• P0304 SARS-COV-2 in Colorectal Cancer of IBD Patients | Journal of Crohn's and Colitis | Oxford Academic

• COVID-19 Virus Can Stay in the Body More Than a Year after Infection | UC San Francisco

• Study identifies rare diseases linked to increased COVID-19 mortality risks

• Five Years Later: Long COVID’s Lasting Impact on the Brain

• Does COVID increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease?

• COVID-19 may accelerate dangerous hardening of the arteries

• Doctors Warn COVID-19 Could Be a Hidden Trigger for Heart Attacks Long After Recovery

• Report: Severe COVID can catalyze arterial plaque growth, sparking deadly heart problems | CIDRAP

• New neuroscience research shows COVID-19 leaves mark on young adult brains

• Researchers Uncover a Startling Link Between COVID-19 and Alzheimer’s Biomarkers

• Study suggests COVID-19 infection no longer grants long-lasting immunity

• Nearly 15% of long-COVID patients have cardiovascular symptoms, most often chest pain | CIDRAP

• Researchers Uncover a Startling Link Between COVID-19 and Alzheimer’s Biomarkers

• New research from Northwestern Medicine reveals link between long COVID and eye health

• More than half of COVID-19 ECMO patients die in hospital, while survivors often struggle long term, study finds

• 5 Years later, Covid still Harms T cells

• 1 in 5 men surveyed had erectile dysfunction up to 2 years after COVID | CIDRAP

• Medical Minute: Long-term heart risks from COVID-19

• ‘Something was wrong with my brain’: How covid leaves its mark on cognition

• 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 - The Lancet Infectious Diseases

• COVID-19 may put patients at risk for other infections for at least 1 year | CIDRAP

• COVID-19 Infection Increases Risk of Advanced CKD, Long-Term Renal Dysfunction

• Abnormal Coronary Vascular Response in Patients with Long COVID Syndrome – a Case-Control Study Using Oxygenation-Sensitive Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance - ScienceDirect

• Multimodal MRI analysis of COVID-19 effects on pediatric brain | Scientific Reports

• Is Covid Rewriting the Rules of Aging? Brain Decline Alarms Doctors - WSJ

• Driving under viral impairment: Linking acute SARS-CoV-2 infections to elevated car crash risks | PLOS Global Public Health

• Persistent immune dysregulation and metabolic alterations following SARS-CoV-2 infection | medRxiv

• Analysis suggests COVID-19 diminishes sperm quality

• Persistent immune dysregulation and metabolic alterations following SARS-CoV-2 infection | medRxiv

• Physical activity level one year following admission to the intensive care unit for COVID-19 | Scientific Reports

• Analysis Finds Children Have Elevated Kidney, Heart Risks Years After COVID-19 Infection

• Cardiac Manifestations in Post-COVID-19 Multisystem Inflammatory Disease in Children (MIS-C) in Pediatric Patients at a Tertiary Hospital in Bahrain: A Retrospective Study | Cureus

• Persistent Post-COVID Symptoms in Primary Immunodeficiency

• COVID-19 causes more severe disease in men. This tricky enzyme may be partially to blame. – IMMUNE MATTERS

• Delays in COVID antiviral receipt raised risk of poor outcomes after ED visits by 18%, data suggest | CIDRAP

• Data link long-term COVID-related loss of smell to depression, anxiety | CIDRAP

• CDC review of two more US H5N1 viruses similar to earlier assessments | CIDRAP

• Scientists estimate higher rate of new-onset diabetes after COVID than in general population

• Hidden heart and lung damage detected in patients with long COVID

• PET imaging reveals long-term heart and lung damage from COVID-19

• Need for awareness and surveillance of long-term post-COVID neurodegenerative disorders. A position paper from the neuroCOVID‐19 task force of the European Academy of Neurology

• Persistent neurocognitive deficits in long COVID: Evidence of structural changes and network abnormalities following mild infection - ScienceDirect

• New study links obesity to long COVID symptoms

• Long-term self-reported symptoms and psychophysical tests in COVID-19 subjects experiencing persistent olfactory dysfunction: a 4-year follow-up study

• Discovery may explain why more men are affected by severe COVID-19

• COVID-19 may Enduringly Impact Cognitive Performance and Brain Haemodynamics in Undergraduate Students - ScienceDirect

• Long-term clinical outcome and exercise capacity in SARS-CoV-2-positive elite athletes

• Disproportionate Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Socially Vulnerable Communities: The Case of Jane and Finch in Toronto, Ontario

• Long COVID linked to rising anxiety and depression in children

• Cardiovascular post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 in children and adolescents: cohort study using electronic health records | Nature Communications

• COVID virus 'reprograms' infection fighters into immune system suppressors, study shows

• Cardiac risk in recovered Covid-19 patients evaluated by 123I-mIBG | Scientific Reports

• Evidence Suggesting Immune Damage

• Renal Long COVID: A Scoping Review - ScienceDirect

• Study Shows SARS-CoV-2 Corrupts Some White Blood Cells to Suppress Immune System, Suggesting a Path to Severe COVID | Johns Hopkins Medicine

• Long COVID destroys teenage lungs in ways doctors never saw

• Long-term outcomes of patients with a pre-existing neurological condition after SARS-CoV-2 infection

• Not Just a Cold: Research Suggests Distinct Long COVID Symptoms in Infants and Preschoolers

• Small vessel disease found in long-term follow-up of severe COVID-19 patients

• Murdoch University and Harvard University study indicates severe forms of Covid-19 infection in children may increase cardiovascular disease risk

• Long-Term Clinical Outcomes of Adults Hospitalized for COVID-19 Pneumonia

• Study suggests kids with severe COVID-19 have lasting metabolic changes | CIDRAP

• Cord blood cytokines/chemokines linked to delays in toddlers exposed to SARS-CoV-2 prenatally | Pediatric Research

• COVID-19 triggers metabolic signatures in kids that mirror adult heart risk

• Cytomegalovirus reactivates in significant proportion of COVID-19 patients | CIDRAP

• Winter viruses can trigger a heart attack or stroke, our study shows. It’s another good reason to get a flu or COVID shot

• How Wildfires Might Increase Risk Of Flu, COVID-19

• New data show COVID-19 triggers spike in new diabetes cases

Vanilla Fudge. Keep Me Hangin' On. Totally amazing high energy version from the Ed Sullivan Show. Must watch!