From the authors, my emphasis

>Epigenetic alteration is known to exert long-term effects on gene expression and phenotypes37,38. Given the increasingly realized high incidence of post-acute SARS-CoV-2 sequelae (long COVID39), understanding the viral impacts on host chromatin and epigenome will not only provide new strategies to fight SARS-CoV-2 in the acute phase, but also pave the way for unravelling the molecular basis of long COVID for its intervention.