"When we say that the vast majority of people have a mild illness and recover, that is true. But what we cannot say, at the moment, is what are the potential long-term impacts of having had that infection," Mike Ryan, the executive director of WHO's Health Emergencies Program, said at a press conference.
"We hope that everybody who recovers from COVID-19 will make a full, permanent recovery, but there's enough people out there having difficulties with their exercise tolerance, having difficulties with their breathing, and potentially having long-term impacts on their cardiovascular system, that we want to try to avoid all COVID infections possible, not just those COVID infections that lead to death," he continued.
Ryan cited recent research out of Germany that raised concerns about the lasting impact the disease could have on the cardiovascular system in recovered patients. He emphasized that even people who have a mild case of the virus could be at risk of lasting health impacts. The research findings could challenge viewpoints that the virus is similar to a bad case of the flu and that young people generally overcome the disease unscathed.