Virologists told whether COVID gives a 100% risk of a decrease in life expectancy – RBC

Virologists interviewed by RBC told how to understand if COVID patients are aging faster

To conclude that those who have had a coronavirus infection are aging faster, more research and a larger statistical base are needed. Sergei Voznesensky, Associate Professor of the Department of Infectious Diseases of the RUDN University, and Alexei Agranovsky, a virologist, Professor of Moscow State University, Doctor of Biological Sciences, told RBC about this.

“Unambiguously, in order to interpret the dependence of life on coronavirus infection, you need to have a fairly serious statistical basis for such statements. But today it is somewhat premature, “- said Sergei Voznesensky, associate professor of the Department of Infectious Diseases of the RUDN University, to RBC. “Too little time has passed [с начала пандемии]so that we can assess life expectancy and how it has been impacted by human illness. Probably, we can talk about some predictions, ”added Aleksey Agranovsky.

So far, all the data allow us to say that coronavirus infection belongs to “acute respiratory diseases, which in the vast majority of cases disappear without a trace,” Voznesensky said. Here we must look at the fact that the coronavirus is often superimposed on any pathology that a person previously had. “For example, some pathologies of the vascular system in those who have had a coronavirus infection often occur in people with existing chronic diseases. Whether it is venous insufficiency, whether it is a tendency to self-education, whether it is hypertension. I wouldn’t build a direct causal relationship without some concomitant pathology, ”the virologist said.

He recalled that some of the patients who have been ill have “post-ovoid syndrome” and such a pathology is in the international classification of diseases. “But it is somewhat far-fetched to assert that the transferred infection is a 100 percent reduction in life expectancy,” the scientist said.