Matt Roth for The Washington Post via Getty Images
A new report by the Brookings Institution found that 2 to 4 million Americans—roughly 1.8 percent of the U.S. civilian workforce—are not working due to “long COVID.” Long COVID itself is not yet clearly defined or understood. But thanks to this report, its economic effects are coming into focus: The U.S. is losing roughly $170 billion a year in wages, and its labor force has shrunk dramatically since early 2000. Long COVID—a diffuse syndrome that can mean cognitive issues, extreme fatigue, and shortness of breath—can occur even after mild cases and last for months. The report estimates that around 16 million Americans have long COVID, and other countries have reported a similar chunk (around 1.8 percent of the entire labor force) unable to work. David Cutler is a health economist at Harvard who reviewed the report, and independently estimated the total cost of long COVID to be $3.7 trillion. This sum recognizes the cumulative effects of reduced income, reduced quality of life, and increased medical spending. He told The Wall Street Journal, “So if you say, is it worth it to spend $50 billion on long COVID...there’s almost no amount of money that you could spend that you could feel like is too much money.”
