COVID-19 Response and Treatment

In mid-March 2020, as the novel coronavirus started making its way through the United States, Fiona Lowenstein (they/their) became ill. At that point, there was not yet any public health guidance on social distancing and wearing masks, and certainly no routine or readily accessible testing for COVID-19. Lowenstein was still interacting with others in person, and even led a yoga class. But when they became sick and were hospitalized, they were tested for SARS-CoV2 and received a positive diagnosis. read more

In March 2020 —still the early days of the U.K.’s COVID-19 crisis—Rhys Thomas, a neurologist at Newcastle University, got a call at home from a concerned colleague. The colleague’s cousin was hospitalized, critically ill with COVID-19, and had developed brainstem encephalitis, a severe inflammatory condition of the brain causing a suite of symptoms, from eye problems to balance problems and drowsiness. He wanted to know if Thomas knew anything about these conditions. At the time, the research coming out of Wuhan, China, only suggested a mild whiff of neurological ­symptoms—headache, dizziness, and the loss of taste and smell. read more