In a fascinating new study, researchers from Yale University and Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrièr have found evidence that COVID-19 passes into the brain and infects neurons in the cortex, according to a pre-publication document available here.

Coverage of this study in the New York Times further explains that the virus invades neurons and hijacks the cells to replicate itself.  Infection of the brain may be rare but lethal.  Researchers saw no immune response to the attack, calling it a silent infection.  The Times reports, “Forty percent to 60 percent of hospitalized Covid-19 patients experience neurological and psychiatric symptoms, said Dr. Robert Stevens, a neurologist at Johns Hopkins University. But the symptoms may not all stem from the virus’s invasion of brain cells. They may be the result of pervasive inflammation throughout the body.” Read the full NYT article here.