5 Key Takeaways

• 1

  Nearly half of hospitalized COVID-19 patients had detectable reactivation of at least one chronic virus during acute illness.

• 2

  The study included 1,154 unvaccinated patients admitted to 20 US hospitals between May 2020 and March 2021.

• 3

  Chronic viral transcripts were found in 550 of 1,148 evaluable patients within the first 40 days of admission.

• 4

  Herpesvirus and Anelloviridae transcripts were linked to greater COVID-19 severity and one-year mortality in critically ill patients.

• 5

  The study's limitations include reliance on RNA sequencing and a cohort limited to unvaccinated patients with early SARS-CoV-2 variants.