Millions of Americans might be out of work due to Long COVID About 14% of working-age people with Long COVID hadn’t returned to their jobs within three months People with five or more symptoms were more than twice as likely to be out of work MONDAY, Aug. 19, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Millions of Americans -- mostly younger adults -- could be unable to work due to the lingering symptoms of Long COVID, a new study says. About 14% of working-age people with Long COVID symptoms hadn’t returned to their jobs within three months of their initial infection, researchers found.
“When we compare the rates observed in this study to the national population, it could mean as many as 2 million people may be out of work because of post-COVID conditions,” said lead researcher Dr. Arjun Venkatesh , chair of emergency medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, in New Haven, Conn. Worse, the average age of those affected was roughly 40, Venkatesh added.
“This has big economic impacts,” Venkatesh said. “It also has impacts on those people individually in terms of their own income security and their ability to care for themselves and their families.” Results also show that those most stricken by Long COVID are more likely to be unable to work.
The study focused on long-term data gathered on more than 6,000 COVID-19 patients at eight study sites in Illinois, Connecticut, Washington, Pennsylvania, Texas and California. Among the nearly 3,000 participants who were employed prior to the .