--- title: Watch: NYC Doctor Warns of COVID-19's Long-Term Effects description: In a conversation with Katie Couric for TIME, Dr. Rony Shimony said doctors are concerned about COVID-19's lasting impact on those infected. canonical: https://time.com/5879938/covid-19-long-term-effects-katie-couric/ author: Tara Law article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-08-17T20:09:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T09:07:12.392Z article:section: Health og:title: Watch: NYC Doctor Warns of COVID-19's Long-Term Effects og:description: In a conversation with Katie Couric for TIME, Dr. Rony Shimony said doctors are concerned about COVID-19's lasting impact og:url: https://time.com/5879938/covid-19-long-term-effects-katie-couric/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62ffd512d3f532e3/698a1170656a3f6044bda6c0/nyc-doctor-long-term-covid-katie-couric.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1282 og:image:height: 721 og:image:alt: nyc-doctor-long-term-covid-katie-couric og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch: NYC Doctor Warns of COVID-19's Long-Term Effects twitter:description: In a conversation with Katie Couric for TIME, Dr. Rony Shimony said doctors are concerned about COVID-19's lasting impact twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62ffd512d3f532e3/698a1170656a3f6044bda6c0/nyc-doctor-long-term-covid-katie-couric.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch: A New York City Doctor Warns of COVID-19's Long-Term Effects > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Aug 17, 2020 8:09 PM UTC   by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Aug 17, 2020 8:09 PM UTC Most people who are infected with [COVID-19](https://time.com/5879086/us-covid-19/) ultimately survive. But for many patients, that may mean living with life-altering [symptoms that linger](https://time.com/5878448/longterm-covid19-recognition-research/)—or become permanent. In a conversation with [Katie Couric for TIME](https://time.com/5818376/katie-couric-time-reports-video-series/), Dr. Rony Shimony, a cardiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, said he and his colleagues have noticed that patients as young as their 30s who survived COVID-19 are reporting lasting symptoms. Doctors have discovered issues including kidney damage, reduction in heart function, and cognitive impairment in patients who had been infected with COVID-19, Shimony said, adding that the sicker the patients had been from COVID-19, the greater the damage to their organs. “We’re now beginning to understand the impact on the brain, on the heart, on the lungs, on the kidneys,” Shimony said. “This particular infection is involving all the body. We need to really take time to understand further the impact on it. And it really causes us to be more cautious about what’s coming ahead.” History raises further cause for concern. After the [Spanish flu](https://time.com/5877129/1918-pandemic-white-house/) of 1918, Shimony said as many as 50% to 60% of patients were found to still have effects four years later. He expects we will see a similar effect with COVID-19. Fortunately, scientists and doctors are learning about how to [treat patients](https://time.com/5868223/dexamethasone-covid-19-study/) with the disease, including the importance of starting treatment early to head off the risk of organ damage, Shimony said. However, the risk of long-term effects means it’s vital to prevent the [disease from spreading](https://time.com/5800901/coronavirus-map/). “This is a disease that can leave people disabled for years to come, or a lifetime,” Shimony said. “The impact it has on a family, psychologically, financially, et cetera, that’s an impact for the country. So we have to build up prevention. We have to listen to the experts. Wear the mask and the social distancing.” _This interview is part of a special series produced in collaboration with Katie Couric. Read more from_ [_TIME Reports with Katie Couric_](https://time.com/tag/katie-couric/)_, and sign up for her weekday morning newsletter_ [_Wake-Up Call with Katie Couric_](https://katiecouric.com/newsletter?partner=time)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5879938/covid-19-long-term-effects-katie-couric/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5879938/covid-19-long-term-effects-katie-couric/"},"headline":"Watch: A New York City Doctor Warns of COVID-19's Long-Term Effects","datePublished":"2020-08-17T20:09:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T09:07:12.392Z","description":"In a conversation with Katie Couric for TIME, Dr. Rony Shimony said doctors are concerned about COVID-19's lasting impact","url":"https://time.com/5879938/covid-19-long-term-effects-katie-couric/","keywords":["COVID-19","katie couric"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62ffd512d3f532e3/698a1170656a3f6044bda6c0/nyc-doctor-long-term-covid-katie-couric.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tara Law","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tara-law/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62ffd512d3f532e3/698a1170656a3f6044bda6c0/nyc-doctor-long-term-covid-katie-couric.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"nyc-doctor-long-term-covid-katie-couric","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/covid-19/","name":"COVID-19"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5879938/covid-19-long-term-effects-katie-couric/","name":"Watch: A New York City Doctor Warns of COVID-19's Long-Term Effects"}}]}] ```