The document discusses COVID-19 among elderly patients in Brazil. It first describes how SARS-CoV-2 infects host cells through the spike protein and hijacks the cell's machinery to replicate itself. It then notes that the first COVID-19 cases occurred in Wuhan in December 2019 and have since spread globally. Most patients treated in hospitals for COVID-19 were over 70 years old, and among deceased patients about 50% were over 83. The virus' symptoms in elderly patients did not always present as the typical fever, cough and dyspnea and were sometimes confused with other age-related illnesses. However, persistent diarrhea was found to be linked to COVID-19 infection in some cases.