For the tens of thousands of Indonesians recovering from COVID-19 infections, returning to normal life has proven slow and arduous. As the more nascent Omicron variety sweeps through the country, patients are reporting instances of so-called “brain fog” — a condition characterized by lapses in concentration and an inability to think clearly.

Though the World Health Organization has long recognized cognitive impairments as one of the side effects of “long COVID” — the long-term effects of COVID-19 felt for months, even years after a negative diagnosis — controversies abound as to whether the Omicron variant renders its patients more susceptible to brain fog.

A recent study published in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology revealed “objective weaknesses in attention and working memory” in some COVID-19 survivors, with possible links to how the virus affects patients’ spinal fluid, but the study fell short of explaining why other COVID-19 survivors did not report such side effects. 

Others speculate that it is pure mathematics. Writing for the Scientific American, Melinda Wenner Moyer argued that as Omicron was more easily transmittable, there were more people at risk of the effects of long COVID — including brain fog.

For the COVID-19 survivors The Jakarta Post interviewed, the effects of brain fog are severe and real, and have affected their work, family life and their ability to return to real normalcy.

Habibah Hasnah

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