Covid is known to cause brain damage. It crosses the blood brain barrier. For instance, people losing their sense of smell, or having it altered for months or years, is a result of brain damage and was one of the most common reported effects of covid. It’s also widely reported that people are having memory problems after a covid infection.

This study from Africa found 50% of covid survivors (lots of undiagnosed cases, so this is likely only people who were hospitalized or sought medical care) had lingering health problems, mostly psychological.

The team, led by researchers from the University of Bari in Italy, found a long-COVID rate of 48.6%, with a predominance of psychiatric conditions, especially post-traumatic stress disorder (25.8%).

The most common neurologic symptom was cognitive impairment (15%), and shortness of breath was the most common respiratory symptom (18.3%), followed by cough (10.7%). Other notable symptoms were loss of appetite (12.7%), weight loss (10.4%), fatigue (35.4%), and muscle pain (15.5%). A quarter (25.4%) of patients reported poor quality of life.

Kids aren’t immune, they only had severe consequences at a much lower rate. Many weren’t vaccinated at all, or aren’t continuing to be vaccinated, because of the myth that covid doesn’t hurt kids and reinfections are benign.

The current understanding is that the odds of long term health impacts, long covid, from an infection is basically the same as you rolling snake eyes on a pair of dice, each time you are infected. Those are bad odds and even if kids fare better than adults at the moment, it’s going to have a big impact.