Coronavirus: Damage from Covid-19 leaving lungs unrecognisable among deceased victims, says expert

‘Complete disruption of the lung architecture’ and fused cells with high concentration of virus found in deceased, says Professor Mauro Giacca

Autopsies of deceased Covid-19 patients are showing that the disease can damage their lungs to the point of being unrecognisable, a professor of cardiovascular science has said.

Professor Mauro Giacca, of King’s College London, told a parliamentary Science and Technology Committee on Monday that he had examined the lungs, and other organs, of patients in Italy who had died after up to 40 days in intensive care.

A “complete disruption of the lung architecture” and fused cells with a high concentration of the virus were found, said Prof Giacca, who also warned that Covid-19 had the potential to create “real problems” for survivors of the illness.

“This information is largely missing in the literature because there have not been autopsies around the world,” he said.

“And what you can find in the lungs of people who have stayed with the disease for over a month before dying is something that is completely different from normal pneumonia, influenza, or even Sars-CoV-1.

“You see massive thrombosis. There is a complete disruption of the lung architecture – in some lights you can’t even distinguish that it used to be a lung.

“There are large numbers of very big fused cells which are virus positive with as many as 10, 15 nuclei. I am convinced this explains the unique pathology of Covid-19. This is not a disease caused by a virus which kills cells, which had profound implications for therapy.”

He added that anti-viral therapy might work in the early phases of the diseased but admitted it was unlikely to provide a cure for Covid-19 patients.

Prof Giacca gave his evidence to the House of Lords committee alongside a number of other leading academics investigating Covid-19 and its effects.

Sir John Bell, a professor of medicine at Oxford University who serves on the government’s coronavirus taskforce, told peers he would be “very surprised” if the UK avoided a second wave of cases in the coming months.

“I think it is possible that we might not have a second wave,” he said. “But I think given the fact that the lockdown has now been largely released, we’re now back in action, and we have still, pretty rapidly declining, but a pretty reasonable level of infections in the community, I would be very surprised if we avoided the second wave.

“I think the real question is are we going to have a number of outbursts and then a second wave or are we just going to get a second wave.”

Sir John also revealed that additional trials for Oxford University’s vaccine candidate were set to be conducted in Africa, saying that the continent was likely to reach its peak infections in July according to the current available data.

Africa has yet to record the same number of cases and fatalities reported in Europe and the Americas, but Sir John said there are “bad things still to come”. He added: ”I’d like to think there aren’t, but I worry about it”.

The committee also heard from Prof Adrian Hayday, the chair of the department of immunobiology at King’s College London, who said that the disproportionate effects of Covid-19 among black and minority ethnic communities in the UK could be linked to socio-economic factor.

“In studies of patients in London hospitals, black, African, Asian and minority groups show higher rates of admission to hospital, which shows they are more likely to have become infected under conditions where the virus dose is maybe high,” he said.

“But once they are in hospital they do just as well as anybody. The hypothesis is they are disproportionately suffering from socioeconomic factors that make them more likely to receive high-frequency, high doses of infection. That is not to say the hypothesis is correct, but it is perfectly valid until proven otherwise.”