that after covid-19 infection, these patients were at increased risk for things like heart failure, heart attack, stroke, even blood clots in the legs and lungs. now, the majority of these patients came from the va health system, so they were generally white men, but the researchers dug a little deeper and accounted for those factors and found that the risks remained despite age, race, or even underlying health problems such as obesity. now, of course, the concern here is, you know, what is this going to do to our health care system? we've already topped 77 million cases here in the u.s. alone. what's more, the pandemic itself also has led to an increase in heart risk overall. people were generally, you know, sedentary, also not following through with their primary care physicians, and doctors have seen a marked increase in things like high blood pressure and out-of-control diabetes regardless of whether you had prior covid-19. the other thing i want to point