One In Fourteen Americans Has Long COVID

One in 300 is dead. And new variants are arriving on the scene. What’s the plan?

So it turns out that one out of every fourteen Americans suffers from long COVID.

Some caveats are in order before we try to process the shock. Technically, those 18.5 million Americans had long COVID during June-July 2022, when the study was conducted. And it’s important to note that “long COVID” isn’t the same as “long haul COVID,” the latter indicating a more debilitating, disabling version of long COVID. But long COVID means symptoms are persisting longer than four weeks after initial infection.

I have long COVID. I’m past 6 months now with diagnosed heart arrythmia and a few other issues.

Some of these folks with long COVID are suffering not just physically and emotionally, but economically. Between two and four million of them are unable to work. They’re contributing to the labor shortage.

We should also point out that 1 in every 300 Americans has already died from COVID-19. And that number continues to rise.

Oh, and long COVID continues to add to that tally. Notice the increase in “sudden deaths,” strokes, heart attacks, and blood clots? Clearly caused by post-COVID illness, sometimes months or a year later.