(Natural News) There is so much we don’t yet know about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), and a lot we’ve already learned.

But because the virus has not been around for very long, despite the fact that the Chinese Communist government hid the outbreak for weeks and probably months, we know almost nothing about COVID’s long-term effects on those who have contracted the disease.

That said, a new paper explores the aftermath of the virus and contains some very interesting findings, as Agence France Presse reports:

A pattern is emerging among COVID-19 patients arriving at hospitals in New York: Beyond fever, cough and shortness of breath, some are deeply disoriented to the point of not knowing where they are or what year it is.

At times this is linked to low oxygen levels in their blood, but in certain patients the confusion appears disproportionate to how their lungs are faring.

According to Dr. Jennifer Frontera, a neurologist at NYU Langone Brooklyn hospital who has been seeing these patients, the findings raised alarms among doctors regarding the long-term impact symptomatic coronavirus infections would have on the brain and the nervous system.

Most people are aware that the coronavirus mostly affects the respiratory system, and older or obese patients with preexisting conditions such as heart disease.

But new and unusual signs of the infection are becoming known.

According to a study published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 36.4 percent of 214 Chinese patients had developed neurological symptoms that ranged from a loss of smell to nerve pain, seizures and even strokes.

Meanwhile, a separate paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week analyzed 58 patients in Strasbourg, France, finding that more than half of them had become agitated or confused. Brain images suggested there was inflammation.