Long Covid Is Keeping Millions Of People Out Of Work

Healthcare Long Covid Is Keeping Millions Of People Out Of Work William A. Haseltine Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories.

Got it! Sep 2, 2022, 12:51pm EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Long Covid is keeping as many as 4 million people out of work. Getty Images The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered a number of labor shortages over the past few years with reasons ranging from a lack of childcare, safety concerns about Covid-19 exposure, less willingness to accept poor labor conditions and pay, burnout, and increased mental health strain in some industries. A new Brookings report finds that Long Covid is keeping as many as 4 million people out of work.

Lost wages are estimated at between $170 billion and $230 million a year, a significant economic burden at a time when the cost of living is rising steeply. The Brookings report uses updated data from Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey in June, which included four new questions about Long Covid to better understand the condition’s prevalence and impact. The survey found that 16.

3 million people (around 8%) of working-age Americans currently have Long Covid. Brookings corroborated those findings with a recent Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis study, which found that 24. 1% of people who have contracted Covid-19 experienced symptoms for three months or more.

According to the CDC, about 70% of Americans have contracted Covid-19. This percentage translates to 34 million working-age Americans experiencing Long Covid symptoms. The same study found that 50% of respondents had recovered from Long Covid, leaving approximately, around 17 million people who may currently have Long Covid.

However, the experience of each person who is afflicted with Long Covid is often unique. Some may have more severe and disabling symptoms that prevent them from working entirely, some may have milder symptoms or employer accommodations that allow them to maintain their regular employment, some may work reduced hours or some may be forced by dire financial circumstances to keep working despite severe illness. A July 2021 study from the Patient-Led Research Collaborative found only about 27% of long Covid patients worked as many hours as they did before falling ill, and approximately 23% weren’t working at all, as a direct result of long Covid.

In order to accommodate these diverse experiences in their estimates, Brookings drew data from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, United Kingdom’s Trades Union Congress , and a Lancet study about the extent of work reductions. This data resulted in estimates of 2 million, 3 million, and 4 million full-time equivalent workers out of the labor force due to Long Covid. The midpoint of this range (3 million full-time equivalent workers) is 1.

8% of the entire U. S. civilian labor force .

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Before the FDA Clinical or Safety Reviews Have Been Made Public While this number may seem high, it is very similar to an estimate by Harvard University economist David Cutler who used a different methodology. His study cited research that 12% to 17% of Covid-19 patients are still experiencing three or more symptoms 12 weeks after onset and the labor force reduction among those with significant impairment is 70%. He then used Covid-19 case counts and labor force participation rates to estimate that 3.

5 million people are out of work due to long Covid. Culter estimated lost wages at approximately $200 billion per year. It is also important to remember that, staggering as they are, these estimates do not represent the full economic burden of Long Covid.

They focus only on lost wages and not the reduced capacity of caretakers and the significant healthcare costs for Long Covid patients. In August, the Biden Administration released a report on Services and Supports for Longer-Term Impacts of Covid-19 , but up until this point, policymakers and public health have been primarily focused on the loss of life from Covid-19 and not on the longer-term loss of health and quality of life. As more people are infected and reinfected with Covid-19, rates of Long Covid and the accompanying economic burden will continue to rise.

If the long Covid population increases by just 10% each year, in 10 years, the annual cost of lost wages will be half a trillion dollars. The Brookings report makes several suggestions on how we can urgently address this crisis. The first is focused on better, long-term measures to prevent people from being infected with Covid-19.

Prevention in public health is always better and more cost-effective than a cure. While many are weary of protective public health measures at this stage in the pandemic, there are still many non-invasive tools we can use. These include wearing masks in poorly ventilated public spaces and increasing ventilation and air quality in spaces like schools, daycares, and offices.

We need a paradigm shift to prioritize clean, pathogen-free air in the same way we ensure food safety and water quality. The goal should be the explicit inclusion of protection against indoor air hazards (including airborne infection control) in the statements of purpose and definitions of all relevant building design and engineering standards, regulations, and codes. Comprehensive ventilation standards must be developed by professional engineering bodies.

New approaches must be developed to encourage the implementation of standards, one option is implementing “ventilation certificates” similar to food hygiene certifications for restaurants. Over time, all new buildings would ideally be designed to ensure good indoor air quality, while existing buildings will be retrofitted. Many cite significant costs as a barrier to accomplishing this.

But such a system will not only reduce Covid infections but rates of other airborne diseases. The economic losses of even an average flu season cost the United States $11. 2 billion due to reductions in productivity and absenteeism.

However, even with the best prevention efforts, some will still continue to be afflicted with Long Covid. We need thousands of well-trained, knowledgeable, affordable physicians to treat and support the growing Long Covid patient community. We also need wider access to disability insurance, expanded sick leave, and employers who are willing to make necessary accommodations.

Only with such systematic and institutional changes can we reduce the tremendous financial burden on Long Covid patients and the broader economy. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn . William A.

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