Covid-19 can damage hearts of some college athletes

That said, there is evidence that the other coronaviruses that caused epidemics (SARS and MERS) can cause clinically meaningful myocarditis and heart failure as a result. In vitro and autopsy evidence suggests that SARS-CoV-2 directly infects myocardial cells. So it's plausible that there will be some cardiac sequelae of COVID, perhaps in many patients or maybe just in those at high risk. We just don't know. Assuming that myocarditis will be a major problem because 2 uncontrolled studies said so is as silly as assuming hydroxychloroquine works because of similar strength of evidence. But dismissing it out of hand (which I'm not suggesting GP is doing) is not smart either. We should be appropriately skeptical, but need to investigate further.

In 2013, I was in ok shape, late 30's, running maybe about 15 miles/week with some gym activity. I was suddenly hospitalized for 4 days with pneumonia and "something else." About four months later, I got on a treadmill and couldn't run for more than a minute.

Long story short, I was diagnosed with viral cardiomyopathy. A virus basically comes in, fucks up your heart, then leaves. Myocarditis was the method in my case. They never ran a test to see what virus, because at that point, there wasn't any reason to. The damage was done. My ejection fraction was at 15% (50-55% is normal). I was given a defibrillator vest to shock me if I collapsed, and eventually I got a permanent implant.

In various conversations with cardiologists, they mentioned that it's believed to be much more common than they once thought. My primarily cardiologist said the week prior to me, she had a young, perfectly healthy male, in his early 20's that had a very similar hospitalization event. His was so bad they immediately put him on the transplant list.

Don’t underestimate flu

Hundreds of millions of people have had sars-cov-2 by now, if long-term effects were a widespread phenomenon, we would know by now. And yet, absolute crickets except rare outliers.

An old friend of mine was sick for months with the virus, and she has many months of rehab in front of her before she's back to normal. That sucks, but she's still the outlier. And you can't let the outliers dictate your behaviour, or you would never leave the house for fear of falling pianos or lightning strikes.

I've likely had inflammation in my lungs for years based on a previously unexplained chronic cough, and since getting treated for the inflammatory condition, within weeks my cough was gone and my pulmonary function is quantifiably normal.

So, it seems to me like systemic organ inflammation isn't too big a deal unless it happens to cause nerve damage, or gets bad enough to cause fibrous scarring. Unfortunately, if you can see it on an MRI, then you're probably already screwed. You can get a good view of any inflammation via PET, but you're going to glow for a while after.

Perhaps viral inflammation is a lot more destructive than autoimmune inflammation alone? It sounds like contemporary COVID treatment has become more effective with the addition of anti-inflammatory medications, though, which is great news.

I see numerous reports of "long term" or "permanent" damage, despite the virus having been around for less than a year.

On the flipside, a year out of competition may be enough to kill someone's career, or at least seriously derail it. Most people only get a few years at high levels of sport, so losing one is a big hit.

The careers of these people live and die based upon their ability to process oxygen. Even a couple percent drop move them out of the "elite" category and can mean the difference between a couple of years as a pro vs a dead end at college.