Aging in America News

| There May Be Some Hints

| Karen Fischer

| Bill Murphy, 77, is passionate about a lot of things: He’s a board member at the Center for UFO Studies in Chicago. Before retirement, he worked as an automotive quality assurance engineer and a history and statistics professor. He remains highly active in diverse communities today, which makes some of his long Covid symptoms striking, even though at first glance, they look inconspicuous, as though they could be attributed to older age, or even human nature.

For example, he feels fatigue regularly. He walks into a room and completely blanks on why he entered it in the first place. Multitasking is also much harder than it used to be, but someone in their 20s arguably exhibits these symptoms, too—if you spend time around anyone glued to TikTok, it’s impossible to ignore that their attention span is frayed. 

But some of Murphy’s symptoms are more pointed. He gets dizzy when walking from one place to another, which increases the likelihood of falls when he has to pivot quickly. He’s an articulate person, and he finds himself struggling to find the right words in conversations now, whereas pre-Covid infection just a few years ago, that was never an issue. It’s challenging to be on his feet for long, which makes delivering talks or presentations impossible without sitting down.

Murphy doesn’t question whether he has long Covid, but he’s a realist, and aging makes the big picture seem somewhat opaque. There is also some dementia in his family. It begs the question: How can an older person tell the difference between symptoms of aging and long Covid? 

Alzheimer’s and dementia

Gabriel De Erausquin, a professor of neurology at the University of Texas in San Antonio, says that understanding long Covid as a condition pertains only to those living with ailments related to a Covid-19 infection contracted between the end of 2019 to the beginning of 2022. 

“That’s where it seems the virus caused the bulk of the long-term disabilities and illnesses,” De Erausquin says.

He explored this very question of aging and long Covid symptoms in a research study that culminated in a 2025 paper in Frontiers In Aging Neuroscience. A global team examined about 3,500 patients, including those with long Covid symptoms and a control group, from Argentina, Canada, Chile, Greece, India, Italy, Russia, and the UK. The study found that there were more pronounced memory, language, and executive function impairments in older patients than younger ones, and that the Covid-19 infection symptoms such as loss of taste and smell were associated with more cognitive impacts down the line for older people. 

Another element of study that’s been found to be significant in long Covid research is the blood brain barrier, which Matthew Campbell, the Chair of Neurovascular Genetics at Trinity College Dublin, defines as the sheen of cells that outline blood vessels in the brain. He has examined how a Covid infection makes a tangible impact on it.

“These cells have properties that tightly regulate what gets into and out of the brain on a daily basis,” he says. “Any disruption to the integrity of these cells has the potential to cause damage to the delicate neural tissues.”

One of the key symptoms of long Covid is brain fog, which is described as fatigue and forgetfulness. Damage to cells along the blood brain barrier are, Campbell found, responsible for some of the brain fog affecting long Covid patients. 

Furthermore, De Erausquin has found through his research that for a person over 50, symptoms such as memory lapses, short-term memory forgetfulness, language impairments, and faulty executive function do generally look “undistinguishable” on the surface from a patient with impending Alzheimer’s disease.

The difference between long Covid and dementia or Alzheimer’s is that a person with long Covid will likely have some motor issues too, like Murphy’s difficulties with dizziness and pivoting at tight angles. While it’s a subtle difference, it’s a key one to know when it comes to determining what cognitive quirks are pointing to what condition.

Campbell says that these cognitive issues are just some of the long Covid symptoms that people are living with. Others may not have these symptoms at all, but instead live with shortness of breath and chronic headaches. 

Prevention

Diseases that impact memory are some of the most daunting for anyone to confront, but De Erasquin says that there are things that people can do to protect themselves from cognitive decline, even if they’re older and were infected with Covid-19 in the key years of the pandemic. 

“Daily physical activity, a healthy diet including fresh fruits and vegetables, and maintaining social and intellectual activity engagement are quite effective in reducing risk,” De Erasquin says. “The combined effect of all of that on a dementia diagnosis is 45 percent, which is quite massive. The same things work after a Covid infection.” 

In the meantime, Murphy has explored doing more interviews from home, and building the confidence to take up public speaking again. He’s a part of a long Covid support group and is in contact with loved ones regularly. The situation isn’t ideal, but he’s not cut off entirely from community and interaction that is so critical to prevent further cognitive issues. He’s observed that a lot of older people that he knows living with long Covid symptoms have drastically altered their lives, and while he’s still waiting to learn more about the cause and how to treat his condition, he can’t help but be grateful because it could be so much worse.

“I get great perspective, empathy, and hope from the warriors I know.”

Karen Fischeris an independent writer and reporter. Her work has appeared in such publications as CQ Researcher, Prism Reports, Eater, The Verge, and Business Insider, among others. She also produces The Gumbo Pot, a weekly Substack featuring independent reportage on education, health, culture, food, infrastructure, and energy.