Fact check: COVID-19 can cause worse lung damage than smoking Miriam Fauzia, USA TODAY
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The claim: COVID-19 infection can leave worse lung damage than smoking COVID-19 can cause worse lung damage than heavy smoking, states the Jan. 21 post shared by The Unbiased Science Podcast. The post includes an image of three lung X-rays that each depict a white cloudiness worsening as it goes from a normal to smoker s to a COVID-19 infected lung.
That the novel coronavirus can cause lung damage is nothing new. The post claims a radiological finding called ground-glass opacities are typically found on chest X-rays of COVID-19 patients and that 50%-80% of these patients are reported to have lung damage. What is concerning is the extent of these sequelae (aftereffects of a disease) and how long they may persist since clinicians have reported this type of lung scarring is present long after COVID-19 infection, The Unbiased Science Podcast states.
ANSWER:
It depends on the severity of the COVID-19 case. However, our experts say that it s generally true.
SOURCES:
Dr. Panagis Galiatstatos- Pulmonary and critical care medicine physician, assistant professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, director of the Tobacco Treatment Clinic
Dr. Michael Matthay- Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco
PROCESS:
Lots of people on social media are talking about the long-term effects of COVID-19.
One tweet from a woman who says she s a trauma surgeon and ICU doctor, got a lot of buzz online.
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but “post-Covid” lungs look worse than ANY type of terrible smoker’s lungs we’ve ever seen.
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By Digital Reporter
Updated: 8:44 AM PST, January 27, 2021
Groups on Facebook have amassed thousands of members where posters talk about their journey with lingering symptoms and permanent damage due to their COVID-19 infections.
When Michele Finicle, 45, contracted COVID-19 in March, she assumed she had a sinus infection. She’s an Oregon teacher and had been regularly showing up for work at the school her 10-year-old daughter also attends. Her daughter was the first to fall ill. Two weeks later Finicle got sick as well.
“My daughter and I both made it through the acute infection. We were never hospitalized for the acute infection. So we thought we had made it,” Finicle told Inside Edition Digital.
When Brittany Bankhead-Kendall received the Covid-19 vaccine in a beautiful executive boardroom at University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas, the small jab finally gave her a dose of hope that she and her family would be safe. But she still knew that downstairs, patients were fighting for their lives and dying every day, relying on surgical tubes and ventilators just to breathe. “It’s a huge juxtaposition, and it’s a really precarious.