Long after the illness is gone, the damage from coronavirus may remain

The roulette wheel of infection that determines which COVID-19 patients live and die has gripped the world in fear, but researchers are looking into another insidious danger — that the disease could be inflicting lasting, even permanent, damage on its victims.

Infectious disease specialists have learned that the health problems caused by the coronavirus sometimes linger for months, raising fears that the virus may have long-term consequences for people’s health. “There’s no doubt there has been anecdotal evidence of symptoms lingering for a while, but we don’t know if it’s 1%, 5%, 20% or 50%” of the cases, said Jeffrey Martin, a clinical epidemiologist and professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at UCSF…