Understandably, COVID-19 is largely thought of as a respiratory illness. Its most notorious symptoms include coughing, congestion and a sore throat, and people can limit its spread by covering their noses and mouths with masks. Yet as many people know from experience, COVID-19 can do a lot more than hurt the lungs and throat. It also wreaks havoc on the heart, the gut and the nervous system.
That's because COVID-19 is primarily a vascular disease, with the SARS-CoV-2 virus targeting the vascular endothelium that transmits fluids between blood and other bodily tissues. This specialization is what helps it spread so easily throughout the body. Consequently, it isn't surprising that COVID-19 also infects our most important organ of all: the brain.
