It appears covid-19 is killing people by starting with endothelial damage. The endothelium is a thin (supposedly one cell thick) layer that protects the arteries (among other things). On top of that layer is the glycocalyx, which looks like super fine hairs. Yes, that’s different from every drawing of arteries you’ve ever seen, because they are wrong.
Anyway, Malcolm Kendick’s theory of heart disease is that you have to protect the endothelium. Anything that detrimentally affects the endothelium, such as sickle cell disease, pollution, stress, etc., causes heart disease. Anything that protects the endothelium, such as sunshine (increases NO, nitric oxide), Viagra (causes NO to be “released” into the blood stream), etc., prevents heart disease.
Damage to the endothelium also makes sense, because it fits in with Kawasaki disease, which some children are getting and which causes damage to the endothelium (or, in this case, the other way around).
Here is Dr. Kendrick on the current thinking:
And here are additional articles/studies in this vein:
This is likely why some people are getting delayed symptoms (up to 56 days later), because once you damage the endothelium, it’s like instant heart disease.
We also know of a person in his early 60s (we think, anyway), who got covid-19 and was in the hospital about a week. He recovered, but his doctors have estimated he has a 20% permanent loss of function in his lungs and heart. (Unfortunately, his 93 year old mother died of covid, and she gave it to him.) If he got endothelial damage during his sickness, that would make sense.