The majority of Americans have had the coronavirus at some point in the past two and a half years. A smaller number – though still a substantial proportion – went on to have lingering symptoms for months or longer from a condition known as long COVID-19.
Just how many people have had long COVID or are still experiencing it? Estimates vary, but the numbers might be a surprise to many. And the high estimates could signal lingering problems for America’s health care systems as well as the economy even after the pandemic is over.
According to federal government estimates released last month, nearly 1 in 5 adults who have had COVID-19 in the past were still experiencing at least one symptom of long COVID – fatigue, shortness of breath, brain fog, chest pain and headaches among others – as of mid-June. The number jumps to more than 1 in 3 when considering adults who have experienced the condition at any point in the pandemic after COVID-19 infection.The statistics are “pretty scary,” according to Mikhail Kogan, the director of the George Washington University Center for Integrative Medicine.
“If we don't stop this, if it's continuous the way it is, we will have potentially a magnitude of most of the population at some point developing some long COVID symptoms,” Kogan says.
But experts say the resources to handle the tens of millions of Americans with long COVID are insufficient. Ashley Drapeau, the director of the center’s long COVID program, says some clinics dedicated to treating the condition have a waiting period of months or even years before patients can be seen.
“These patients are sitting at home unable to work, unable to take care of their families,” says Drapeau, who had long COVID after contracting COVID-19 in December 2020. “Debilitated young people having to quit school – and they're faced with very limited options.”
That number could amass into a new wave of chronic illness that will continue to grow with guaranteed implications for the economy as well as health care systems. A Government Accountability Office report published in March found that long COVID has “potentially affected up to 23 million Americans, pushing an estimated 1 million people out of work,” and that number is likely higher now.Some of those patients are recovering so slow that you’re simply going to have a massive growth, gradual expansion of the total pool of these patients because they're not recovering fast enough compared to the new people added to the pool,” Kogan says. “So we're going to see a continuous, increased demand on our health care systems.”
In fact, one study published in May found that roughly half of people hospitalized with the coronavirus in Wuhan, China, at the start of the pandemic reported symptoms of long COVID two years later. Authors said it was the longest follow-up study to date.
While the study did find that the physical and mental health of the patients improved over time, it still suggested that coronavirus patients have poorer health and quality of life than the general population two years after hospitalization.
Kogan says that despite increasing long COVID numbers, there isn’t a strong, centralized push for more funding or resources. Instead, it’s more of a “wait and see” approach. He acknowledges that many people eventually recover from the condition even without treatment but stresses that people could recover sooner with help.
“We’re seeing people coming to us a year or two years after they got sick, and they still can barely walk,” he says.
While long COVID can arise after mild or even asymptomatic cases of COVID-19, the risk for the condition is likely higher for those who had more severe disease. Given that the cause of long COVID remains unknown and the symptoms list varies widely, treatment hasn’t been the most straightforward process for many.
“I think that a lot of patients are quickly realizing that the standard of care for COVID is just not very good,” Kogan says. “There are no effective tools in standard medicine. The therapies are very effective, but they're often not enough. And so this is why we decided on the integrative approach with a lot more alternative things like acupuncture, qigong, different diets, different vitamins or supplements – turned out actually that's where suddenly people were starting to get a lot better.”
There is also no single test for long COVID, so many patients go through multiple doctors and evaluations to assess their condition and make sure their symptoms can’t be attributed to anything else.
Similar to long COVID clinics for adults, programs for kids are also booked up.
The pediatric post-COVID program at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., has seen about 80 new patients since it started in May 2021, while 300 more have been referred to the program or sent in inquiries. Appointments at the clinic are fully booked through October, according to Alexandra Yonts, the program’s director.
She says symptoms in kids can range from mild like loss of taste or smell to severe with every organ affected.
The vast majority of the patients were healthy prior to contracting COVID-19. Yonts says that many were “super high functioning, straight ‘A’ students, Division I athletes involved in 800 things under the sun and excelling in all of them.”
“I'd say 90% of cases were completely healthy before they got COVID-19 and now have some degree of disability that has rapidly and massively impacted their life, which is hard for anyone to accept but especially for kids who are going through this crazy developmental stage of their life anyway,” Yonts says.
Still, most of the kids they have treated have experienced improvement over time.“I think that that has been encouraging for most parents to hear,” she says.
Nearly 13.8 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. While there is less research on long COVID in kids, one recent review of more than 20 studies found the prevalence to be about 25% – or 1 in 4 – among children and adolescents who have had COVID-19.
And cases of long COVID in kids are certainly being missed, especially among younger children who may not be able to express some of their symptoms.
You must be logged in to post a comment.