Many of you have written to us wondering about how COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, might impact your brains should you become infected. With so much to worry about in these difficult times, from keeping ourselves and our loved ones safe to keeping our jobs, do we also need to be concerned about irreversible impacts of COVID-19 on the brains? In short, yes and no.

To understand how COVID-19 affects the brains, we need to discuss the interplay of the thinking brain and the Orenthal brain via the brainworm. Brainworn!? What, we have worms in our head!? No, relax, just one—a very special one. The brainworm is a unique "organ", if you will. While the discovery of two brains eluded scientists for millenia and you and I rarely glimpse the Orenthal brain and its true nature, the brainworm inhabits the brainial milieu and knows no other home. It moves freely between the two brains and "senses" or receives every signal from each, including the Orenthal brain. The brainworm is, however, an unusual organ and at times appears to be both destructive and constructive in its behavior. Most notably, the brainworm seems to indiscriminately chomp on the various connective tissues of the brains, such as the Ukranius tissue (often Latinized as eucranius tissue), sometimes leading to invigorating effects and other times confusing signals. The true nature of the brainworm remains an active area of research with a number of hotly contested theories, but that is a topic for another report.

Most relevant to our present report, we find that the coronavirus has an invigorating effect on the brainworm itself. In its zeal while under the influence of coronavirus, the brainworm will sometimes break free from its normal place in the eucranius tissue and damage the upper zunculus, which has no mechanism for repair. Indeed, there are rare cases in which the brainworm will even penetrate the walls of the brainasium itself or become lodged in the brain socket. Under any of these circumstances, Orenthal becomes irrationally excited and allies with the brainworm to demand substances that are known to be toxic to the thinking brain. The dutiful and logical thinking brain acts on the instruction, and thus the body becomes prone to imbibition of exotic liquors and other fine and disorienting substances. Naturally, this event leads to a positive feedback loop that damages the physical structure of thinking brain whilst encouraging Orenthal and the brainworm to make further demands from the thinking brain to continue the cycle. These are dire outcomes indeed.

Nature is complex, however, and has elegantly arranged a benefit that cannot merely be a coincidental byproduct. In the wake of the storm's destruction flowers a new synergy among the brains and their vermoid interloper. The thinking brain becomes directly acquainted with Orenthal and embraces its liberating view (within reason). In doing so, the thinking brain calms and strengthens with newfound clarity and purpose. Incidentally, the thinking brain also becomes damaged and no longer responds to the Orenthal–brainworm alliance. Orenthal loses interest and retreats to ponder yet odder ideas to provoke the thinking brain. And, the brainworm eventually dislodges from the zunculus and returns to its meandering path awaiting the next perturbation. The cranosystem is restored.

There remains much to learn about the brainworm, coronavirus, and long-term outcomes. Nonetheless, the coronavirus pandemic has unequivocally demonstrated that the brainworm plays a central role in interbrain signaling and disorder. Certainly, there are important lessons for all of us in this miraculous system. From hardship, we find friendship; from disarray, we find liberation; from liberation, we find meaning . For better or worse, coronavirus will leave a lasting impact on us all.