For many who doubt the existence of COVID and underplay its clinical and long-term effects, Dr. Katelyn Jetelina reviewed “Long COVID” in a recent edition of Your Local Epidemiologist.

A study in Sweden conducted from 2020 through 2021 quantified the prevalence of long COVID as one percent of individuals displaying clinical signs of the infection compared to six percent of those that required hospitalization and 32 percent among patients admitted to an ICU.

Epidemiologists in the U.K. estimated a prevalence of three percent Long COVID in the general population.

The 2022 U.S. census included questions relating to COVID in the Household Pulse Survey.

It was determined that 16 million working-aged U.S. residents complained of one or more symptoms including fatigue, headache, loss of sensory perception or other neurologic effects.  Of this cohort, up to 4 million have ceased working, contributing to the ongoing problem of lower availability of workers, adding to wage inflation and a lower GDP.

Dr. Jetelina quoted economists who have calculated the U.S. loss from long COVID at $3.7 trillion based on the approximately 100 million diagnosed cases of COVID since the beginning of the outbreak in 2020.  Admittedly this figure may be exaggerated but Long COVID is a significant component of the disease and has had a disproportionate impact on the elderly, those with predisposing respiratory and immune dysfunction and especially in lower-income demographics.