Long COVID is costing countries billions of dollars in lost productivity and increased health and social welfare costs, economists say.
Five years on from the start of the COVID-19 crisis, millions of people are struggling with debilitating health problems that have decimated their lives and livelihoods.
The first cases of long COVID were reported in May 2020.
The OECD, a club of mostly rich nations, estimates long COVID could be costing its 38 members $864 billion to $1.04 trillion annually due to reductions in quality of life and labour force participation. This does not include the extra burden on health services.
As a long COVID advocate, we’ve tried and tried sharing our stories and all we get is ridicule and “why didn’t you try acupuncture and exercise”. So we’re starting to focus more on the economic impacts as the average person seems to actually care about that.
Super sad, I’m sorry.
I worked for a women with long covid. She’s around 60 and she can barely walk to the door without being winded. She’s also an anti vaxxer and doesn’t believe covid is real and she has some sort of flu for the past 3 years. We’re kinda fucked it seems.
Have you tried walking it off? /s