Children may be more likely to be diagnosed with autism and other neurodevelopment disorders if their mother had a Covid-19 infection while pregnant, according to a new study.
Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital analyzed more than 18,000 births that occurred in the Mass General Brigham health system between March 2020 and May 2021, assessing records for laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 tests among the mothers and for neurodevelopment diagnoses among their children through age 3.
They found that children born to mothers who had Covid-19 during pregnancy were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with a neurodevelopment disorder than those born to mothers who did not have an infection while pregnant: more than 16% versus less than 10%, or a 1.3 times higher risk after adjusting for other risk factors.
This smells like a correlation that is not a causation to me. Maybe it’s something like “people who are more likely to seek diagnoses”.
Covid 19 has fever as a symptom,
Fever is a risk factor for neuro development disorders.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8449704/
Thats at least one causal link.
this occurs with other viruses to, like varicella CMV during pregnancy, but thier congenital damage is more severe.
That is also a correlation, not necessarily a causation.
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The study is, indeed, correlation. It does not posit a cause.
Still, the conclusion is valid: