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A study published Tuesday could offer new clues about a potential cause of long Covid-19 symptoms — and possible avenues for treatment. The small, 17-person study, led by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and the National Institutes of Health, examined the many symptoms behind long Covid and found they may, in part, be driven by long-term nerve damage. ... Evaluations of the 17 patients studied found evidence of peripheral neuropathy in 59 percent of them, or 10 people. (McCausland, 3/2)

Nagging brain fog COVID long-haulers suffer from may be linked to nerve damage, MGH doctors suggest. “It was like having an ice pick in my brain,” one long-hauler told the Herald Monday. “I kept shivering and had chronic fatigue. I slept 13 hours at a time and the fear of not being able to breathe gave me PTSD. It was like having a spider across your lungs.” A new study led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and the National Institutes of Health suggests that some patients with long-COVID have long-lasting nerve damage that appears caused by infection-triggered immune dysfunction. (Dwinell, 3/1)

Mike Heidenberg was forced to step away from his job at a New York college when he developed Covid-19 symptoms in the spring of 2020. Almost two years later, he still feels too sick to return to work. Heidenberg, 48, is one of an untold number of Americans grappling with the mysterious effects of what has become known as long Covid. His concerns now go beyond his health. “We can’t sustain living in this apartment we have called our home for 13 and a half years,” said Heidenberg, who had been working as a student adviser at Berkeley College in Westchester County. (Ramgopal, Schecter and McFadden, 3/1)

Most Americans say some restrictions on normal activities should remain in place to try to control the coronavirus, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll, which finds that public wariness of the pandemic lingers even as federal health officials and a growing roster of governors have softened mask advice. (Goldstein and Guskin, 3/1)

More than half of Texans had been infected by COVID-19 as of late January, according to a nationwide blood sample survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The survey was based on samples from 52 commercial laboratories across the country and included specimens that were collected as part of routine care and sick visits unrelated to the virus. The specimens were tested for a specific type of antibody developed in response to an infection but not vaccination. (Gill, 3/1)

Some 133,000 more Mainers may have contracted COVID-19 than the state’s official case count reflects, according to a new federal study that provides a greatly expanded picture of the number of people who may have been infected with the virus since it arrived nearly two years ago. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveyed blood samples taken through January in search of COVID-19 antibodies that would show people had been infected with the virus. It did not look at antibodies produced by vaccination. (Andrews, 3/2)

Researchers in Canada believe they have found the "first evidence" of a deer passing the SARS-CoV-2 virus to a human. In a paper that was published last week on bioRxiv – which has yet to be peer reviewed – the authors wrote that through a "multidisciplinary research collaboration for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance in Canadian wildlife," they had identified a new and "highly divergent lineage" of the virus. (Musto, 3/1)

Across New Orleans, in a combination of joy, defiance, trepidation and celebration, Mardi Gras returned on Tuesday with one eye on the pain of the past two years in a city especially hard hit by the pandemic and the other very much looking forward to strutting, parading and moving on. Last year, all Carnival parades were canceled, and celebrations were scaled back to small, same-household gatherings and decorated porches known as “house floats.” But this month, New Orleans’s Carnival celebration returned in full swing, raising hopes about the city’s resurgence from devastating pandemic losses. (Reckdahl and Kasakove, 3/1)