| This statement is misleading. There are dozens of papers that show the corona virus alive and well in a large variety of tissues months and even years beyond the initial acute infection. Here is but one such paper - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11695-022-06338-9 > Gastric specimens from 26 (32.5%) patients and 4 (100%) cholecystectomy [gallbladder removal] specimens showed positive cytoplasmic staining for the anti-SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein in surface mucosal epithelial cells. > The median time between initial COVID-19 infection and surgery was 274 and 380 days in the positive and negative staining groups, respectively (p = 0.371). It's not clear whether these had any long lasting symptoms since infection. > The inclusion criteria were a history of COVID-19 with one or more gastrointestinal symptoms [during the acute phase] and a negative PCR test result at the time of bariatric surgery. There are literally dozens of these. The problem is that most people don't get tissues resected from inside their body when their alive and most such tissues are not tested for the virus. With regards to the general question of persistent corona viruses, just look at FIP in cats for another such example. |
The only confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections in humans lasting beyond a few weeks have been in immunocompromised patients. Their immune systems were able to somewhat suppress the virus, but not clear the infection. (There is a hypothesis that such patients were the sources for some of the variants because the extended infections gave the virus more time to evolve but that can't be conclusively proven.)