Across America, many of the nearly 50 million people infected with the coronavirus continue to suffer from some persistent symptoms, with a smaller subset experiencing such unbearable fatigue and other maladies that they canโt work, forcing them to drop out of the workforce, abandon careers and rack up huge debts.
Hard data is not available and estimates vary widely, but based on published studies and their own experience treating patients, several medical specialists said 750,000 to 1.3 million patients likely remain so sick for extended periods that they canโt return to the workforce full time.
Long covid is testing not just the medical system, but also government safety nets that are not well suited to identifying and supporting people with a newly emerging chronic disease that has no established diagnostic or treatment plan. Insurers are denying coverage for some tests, the public disability system is hesitant to approve many claims, and even people with long-term disability insurance say they are struggling to get benefits.
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โThey are suffering in dramatic ways, and in ways that have altered their lives and placed them in financial peril,โ said Harlan Krumholz, a cardiologist and scientist at Yale University and Yale New Haven Hospital.
