The article also pointed out that similar things are apparent in many other countries. Finland was highlighted as a place that avoided the trend -- a country that also had relatively low covid impact compared to the US.
I mean, not really; John's Hopkins puts Finland's all time test positivity per capita at ~26%, to the United States' ~30%. A bit better, but not enough to explain differences like this. Its not vaccination either: Finland only leads the US by ~0.23%.
One area where Finland had low impact is in deaths: 0.16% per capita to the US's 0.33%. But, if the theory is that COVID infections themselves caused a globally observable effect like this, that stat should cause the problem to hit Finland more, not less, given they had more COVID survivors than the US.
I think the better explanation might be COVID adjacent: COVID seems to have some direct neurological impact, but the lingering secondary cultural, economic, and psychological effects of the pandemic & lockdown feel a lot more likely to explain this. Additionally, I'd put money on social media also being higher on the sources list than direct COVID neurological impact.
One area where Finland had low impact is in deaths: 0.16% per capita to the US's 0.33%. But, if the theory is that COVID infections themselves caused a globally observable effect like this, that stat should cause the problem to hit Finland more, not less, given they had more COVID survivors than the US.
I think the better explanation might be COVID adjacent: COVID seems to have some direct neurological impact, but the lingering secondary cultural, economic, and psychological effects of the pandemic & lockdown feel a lot more likely to explain this. Additionally, I'd put money on social media also being higher on the sources list than direct COVID neurological impact.