
Lung damage in recovered Covid sufferers apparently permanent, research finds - roxanneonhacker
https://www.rainews.it/tgr/tagesschau/articoli/2020/04/tag-Coronavirus-Lungeschaden-Forschung-Uniklinik-Innsbruck-6708e11e-28dc-4843-a760-e7f926ace61c.html
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dijit
Translation:
[https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https...](https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rainews.it%2Ftgr%2Ftagesschau%2Farticoli%2F2020%2F04%2Ftag-
Coronavirus-Lungeschaden-Forschung-Uniklinik-
Innsbruck-6708e11e-28dc-4843-a760-e7f926ace61c.html)

Earlier citation: [https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-recovery-
damage-...](https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-recovery-damage-lung-
function-gasping-air-hong-kong-doctors-2020-3?op=1&r=US&IR=T)

This is not 'new' information, and the situation is evolving. Many scientists
have indicated that similar virus affects can take between 7 and 20 years to
completely heal. But there's not enough information yet.

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MandieD
Important takeaway: the head of emergency intake for Tyrol's largest hospital
says that no matter how healthy you were or how minor your Covid-19 case was,
do not go diving again without being examined by a doctor who specializes in
diver physicals, due to the serious lung damage he has seen in previously-
healthy recreational divers who had Covid-19 cases minor enough that they
recovered at home, several weeks after they were declared recovered.

(edited to add) This hospital probably has seen a higher proportion of "minor"
cases in previously-healthy, non-elderly patients because a lot of the early
non-Italy spread of Covid-19 was at various Tyrolean ski resorts - most
notably, Ischgl.

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Havoc
Jikes. Especially the part that they're talking about people that self-
quarantined here. Not even ICU crowd.

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theredbox
So is this the virus or pneumonia scarring lungs?

~~~
robbiep
The virus is causing the pneumonia (which literally means lung inflammation).
Although it is possible to get a superimposed bacterial infection over the top
of this (to be mildly flippant, double pneumonia) because the lungs aren’t
clearing debris and another infection can take hold. But the damage is
specifically from the effects of the virus

~~~
mcbits
I think the question was whether the virus causes permanent damage in patients
without pneumonia.

Edit: From the translated article, apparently yes:

> All of them were not severe cases, their illnesses were five to six weeks
> ago and they are considered to have recovered. But they can no longer dive.
> "The damage to the lungs is irreversible"

~~~
rpiguy
Pneumonia can scar the lungs, but COVID appears to be able to scar the lungs
without causing Pneumonia. It interferes with hematic function (the ability of
your blood to exchange oxygen) leading to the formation of ground glass bodies
in the lungs. However, with most people now thought to get COVID
asymptomatically, it is likely only a small percentage of the infected leave
with permanent damage.

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zerof1l
This reminds me of damage to lungs from smoking. We don't yet have enough
research to claim that lungs will or will not recover from coronavirus.
However, I would speculate that recovery is possible and in 5 or 10 years,
just like with smoking, partial or near full recovery is possible.

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vmception
> It is now undisputed that Covid-19 should be taken seriously as a serious
> illness.

This is heavily disputed. I wonder what the threshold really is for changing
that idea. Now that the death numbers are greater than the flu, we are still
at the "those people were going to die within a year anyway" phase, and the "I
am okay and have a BMI less than 30 so therefore people like me are okay"
phase.

Been watching the studies closely though!

How is rainews as a source? This article is saying mild symptoms recovered at
home have permanent lung damage and divers cannot dive anymore.

edit: if anyone misread my quotes as personal opinion, they're not. It is
unproductive to offer counterpoints here because you need to do that on your
Facebook and Whatsapp groups if your filter bubbles even allow you to see
people that say the things in quotes. This post is merely acknowledging filter
bubbles exist, in the author's community it is "undisputed", in different
communities it is quite disputed you can see it on the comment section
anywhere. I know its hard to read things that don't match your talking points
verbatim, but save the copypasta and read what I wrote.

~~~
Funes-
>we are still at the "those people were going to die within a year anyway"
phase.

No, we are not. Young and healthy people are dying too. And that's with global
confinement taking place. Just imagine in what kind of hell we would be if
people were still roaming around freely; heaps of people would die just
because they wouldn't have access to sanitary devices (ventilators, for
instance) nor medicine. In any case, if you had a close relative suffering
from cancer who would otherwise live more than a year if they didn't get the
virus, you wouldn't spout such bullshit. Same thing goes for your next
uninformed statement:

>the "I am okay and have a BMI less than 30 so therefore people like me are
okay" phase.

Yeah, no.

~~~
s9w
> Young and healthy people are dying too

A datapoint against that: We have a renowned pathologist in Hamburg (Prof
Püschel) who examines every corona death in the city - about 60 so far. He was
quoted multiple times that every single victim had severe preexisting
conditions. And that none of them would have lived another year.

He also challenged the idea that healthy/young people are in danger and gave
the example of a young (I think ~30 yo) corona victim in Hamburg who actually
had undiscovered severe illness.

edit: So this will get -4'd soon - okay :o

~~~
squiggleblaz
But aren't there many cases around the world of apparently healthy doctors and
nurses and others who died of coronavirus? You could say "Oh, yes, they all
had an undiscovered severe illness that would have killed them within the
year".

But generalising from one city with only 60 odd deaths to a necessary outcome
in the face of apparent evidence to the contrary from places with much higher
bodycounts seems like it's a long bow to draw. It is much more likely that the
people who die easiest have preexisting conditions, so when you have a low
bodycount it is mostly occupied by people with preexisting conditions.

~~~
zwischenzug
'Viral load' is said to be a factor here.

