Imagine if the flu caused irreperable lung damage.
Hubei has like 60 million people. Maybe 70k cases of covid-19.
This is almost certainly not the case.
From the MRC Centre, Imperial College, London:
"the team estimate only about 1 in 19 people infected with COVID-19 in Wuhan are being tested for infection and therefore being reported as confirmed cases."
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/195217/coronavirus-fatality-...