The Autopsy, a Fading Practice, Reveals Secrets of COVID-19 Autopsies have shaped our understanding of what COVID-19 does to the body and how we might combat it By Marion Renault •
Updated on December 24, 2020 at 1:06 am
NBCUniversal Media, LLC
The COVID-19 pandemic has helped revive the autopsy.
When the virus first arrived in U.S. hospitals, doctors could only guess what was causing its strange constellation of symptoms: What could explain why patients were losing their sense of smell and taste, developing skin rashes, struggling to breathe and reporting memory loss on top of flu-like coughs and aches?
At hospital morgues, which have been steadily losing prominence and funding over several decades, pathologists were busily dissecting the disease’s first victims and finding some answers.