Long Covid

Health
Written By Alysha Rashid

Among Americans who have ever had Covid, 29% suffered from Long Covid symptoms. In West Virginia, it’s 41%.

Long Covid estimates, June 7-19, 2023

Percent of adults who previously had Covid, with symptoms lasting 3 months or longer

Among Americans who previously had Covid, 29% experienced prolonged symptoms, known as Long Covid.1 Long Covid is the third leading neurological disorder in the U.S., and continues to impact millions of Americans across the nation.2 Long Covid largely affects immune and circulatory systems, as well as the brain and lungs.3,4,5,6 In a new study by the National Institutes of Health, patients and researchers identified over 200 symptoms associated with Long Covid.7 The study also found that Long Covid was more common and severe for patients who had Covid before the Omicron outbreak in December 2021 or who were unvaccinated. Long Covid contraction dropped from 1 in 3 Covid patients before Omicron, to 1 in 10 Covid patients after. In patients who had Long Covid as early as May 2020, a separate study from Northwestern Medicine found that 85% of patients reported decreased quality of life, 51% had cognitive impairment, 45% had altered lung function, 83% had abnormal CT chest scans, and 12% had elevated heart rate on rhythm monitoring.8

Persistent Covid symptoms sidelined approximately 500,000 workers in 2022, equivalent to $62 billion in per-year value of labor loss supply.9 Safe and effective treatments for Long Covid patients are crucial for overall wellbeing and the nation’s economic recovery (Total jobs).

  1. “Long COVID: Household Pulse Survey”. CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/covid19/pulse/long-covid.htm 

  2. “PRESIDENT’S COLUMN”. American Academy of Neurology”. July, 2022. https://www.aan.com/AAN-Resources/Details/about-the-aan/board-of-directors/presidents-column/july-2022/ 

  3. “Immunological dysfunction persists for 8 months following initial mild-to-moderate SARS-CoV-2 infection”. Phetsouphanh, Darley, Wilson, Howe, Munier, Patel, Juno, Burrell, Kent, Dore, Kelleher, and Matthews. Nature Immunology. January, 2022. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-021-01113-x

  4. “Persistent Exertional Intolerance After COVID-19, Insights From Invasive Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing”. Singh, Joseph, Heerdt, Cullinan, Lutchmansingh, Gulati,  Possick, Systrom, and Waxman. January, 2022. https://journal.chestnet.org/article/S0012-3692(21)03635-7/fulltext

  5. “Nervous system consequences of COVID-19”. Spudich, Nath. Science.org. January, 2022. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm2052

  6. “The Investigation of Pulmonary Abnormalities using Hyperpolarised Xenon Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Patients with Long-COVID”. Grist, Collier, Walters, Chen, Eid, Laws, Matthews, Jacob, Cross, Eves, Durant, Mcintyre, Thompson, Schulte, Raman, Robbins, Wild, Fraser, and Gleeson. MedRxiv. February, 2022. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.01.22269999v1

  7. “Large study provides scientists with deeper insight into long COVID symptoms”. NIH. May, 2023. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/large-study-provides-scientists-deeper-insight-into-long-covid-symptoms

  8. “Northwestern Medicine shares new findings from the Comprehensive COVID-19 Center as significant demand remains for patient appointments”. Newsroom. July, 2023. https://news.nm.org/northwestern-medicine-shares-new-findings-from-the-comprehensive-covid-19-center-as-significant-demand-remains-for-patient-appointments/ 

  9. “THE IMPACTS OF COVID-19 ILLNESSES ON WORKERS”. Goda, Soltas. National Bureau of Economic Research. https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w30435/w30435.pdf

Alysha Rashid
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