I am a bit suspicious of how this result is being presented in the media. The overwhelming bulk of the diagnoses are for anxiety and depression. Which seem like pretty typical reactions to an extreme emotional trauma like hospitalization during a pandemic, and are fairly common reactions to long term recovery from a major illness even during less desperate times where treatment is more readily available.

The elevated rates of stroke and dementia are more concerning, but are a less startling 7% and 2% respectively of the observed population. I’m not sure if the authors controlled well for confounding conditions either.