I mused for some time on whether to mention it, for fear of being accused of being a Covid denier, or mocker of sick people.

But this does illustrate that you can only see what you look for. https://twitter.com/HeartOTXHeartMD/status/1301880709255172096

After thinking about the above, consider theses questions.

1. What do Covid recoverers have in their non heart organs?

2. What did they have before?

3. Will it go away?

4. What about recoverers from other severe viruses?

1. What do Covid recoverers have in their non heart organs?

2. What did they have before?

Ok so now everyone realises that there is no pre post comparison available yet.

One day there might be.

People who happened to have an MRI (or whatever) for some CHRONIC stable condition a few months ago, and have now had Covid.

Bring then back for a rescan.

Any problem?

Until pre post avail we could use comparator groups.

But what is the best comparator for people who have had Covid?

Well, think about it a bit more.

Who gets ill with Covid?

So if those CV risk factors affect things in the heart,

- which they definitely do, hence the name "CV risk factors", doh -

then the Coviders will have different hearts from the non Coviders even BEFORE the Covid happened.

So is the Coviders c Noncoviders comparison OK

What would be needed is a much more nuanced comparator group.

Puntman JAMA cardio did one in record time, but did they control for EVERYTHING relevant to heart scans

That is hard when we don't know what that everything is, time & money is short, and there’s a pandemic ongoing

3. Will it go away?

To everyone who says there is definitely permanent heart damage in a large proportion of people who get Covid, I say this.

How come you have to work as a doctor?

Listening to people kvetching about this or that symptom,

Filling in pointless forms,

Fighting with 20 passwords for different incompatible IT systems.

Why don't you just go to Las Vegas?

And use your inexorable power of foretelling the future to bet on red or black correctly, each time.

You would have billions after a day of work.

And you only have to look forward 30 seconds in time, not 30 years.

Simples!

4. What about recoverers from other severe viruses?

I have asked my friend Professor Google and his specialist colleague Professor Pubmed and they do seem to point to many severe systemic viruses causing inflammation all over.

At the time people are severely ill.

But these seem to fade away gradually with time. I think.

I am open to being persuaded whether there is a chunk of oddness that stays for ever. I am not convinced I have seen anything convincing either way.

But I am not a specialist in scanning. And definitely not an expert in viruses.

And I haven't done a systematic literature search.

So I am hoping someone who is one or both, or has time to do the search, can add to this thread.

In the meantime, let's not frighten the patients with our individual imagined fears, please.

Let's just give them actionable advice.

Hand hygiene.
Masks.
Don't get close to others unless essential.
And try to get back to normal life and normal worries.