A massive study of millions of veterans has found that cardiovascular damage from SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, can be long-lasting.

“In an analysis of more than 11 million U.S. veterans’ health records, researchers found the risk of 20 different heart and vessel maladies was substantially increased in veterans who had COVID-19 1 year earlier, compared with those who didn’t,” according to Science.org. “The risk rose with severity of initial disease and extended to every outcome the team examined, including heart attacks, arrhythmias, strokes, cardiac arrest, and more. Even people who never went to the hospital had more cardiovascular disease than those who were never infected.”

Eric Topol, a cardiologist at Scripps Research, told Science.org that the results are “stunning … worse than I expected, for sure.”