Welcome to the latest issue of the Covid-Is-Not-Over newsletter!
This is Part Two of a basically infinite series on the effects of Long Covid. The first was a collection of fairly general resources on a wide range of Long Covid topics. As usual, what I’m hoping with all these posts is that the resources I’m sharing will empower Covid-aware people to be more confident discussing what really going on in the pandemic with their networks of family, friends and colleagues.
Perhaps I’m being a bit pollyannaish here, but hopefully, working together, we can all work to nudge the overall level of knowledge about the pandemic.
Here’s how Wikipedia defines Long Covid:
Long COVID or long-haul COVID (also known as post-COVID-19 syndrome, post-COVID-19 condition, post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), or chronic COVID syndrome (CCS)]) is a condition characterized by long-term health problems persisting or appearing after the typical recovery period of COVID-19 Although studies into long COVID are under way, as of May 2022 there is no consensus on the definition of the term.
Long COVID may affect multiple organ systems, including disorders of the respiratory, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and nervous systems, mental health, metabolism, musculoskeletal pain, and anemia.
The most commonly reported symptoms of long COVID are fatigue and memory problems. Many other symptoms have also been reported, including malaise, headaches, shortness of breath, anosmia (loss of smell), parosmia (distorted smell), ageusia (distortion or loss of taste), muscle weakness, low-grade fever, and cognitive dysfunction.
Without further ado, some links and resources on the effects of Long Covid on the economy.
One billion days lost: How COVID-19 is hurting the US workforce by Charlie Berdan, Sarun Charumilind, Matt Craven, Jessica Lamb, Shubham Singhal / McKinsey & Company
Many economic analysts are puzzled by the conundrum in the US labor market: even as the economy cools, there are still nearly twice as many job openings as there are unemployed people. It seems that one of the factors keeping workers on the sidelines is COVID-19. And on the other side of the equation, COVID-19 also seems to be a critical factor holding down productivity and hurting companies’ ability to keep up with demand.
A billion workdays lost to COVID-19 is enough to have a substantial impact on the economy. Even the midpoint scenario of roughly 600 million workdays lost represents nearly a week missed per worker on average, more than doubling the prepandemic number of sick days taken by Americans.11 The implied reduction of 1.5 percent in the US labor force is material at a time when unemployment stands at only 3.7 percent, and many sectors are labor constrained.
The impact is asymmetric across industries; those sectors whose workers are unable to be productive remotely bear a greater burden.
Absence from work at record high as Americans feel strain from Covid by Melody Schreiber / The Guardian
One analysis in New York found that 71% of long Covid patients who filed for worker’s compensation still had symptoms requiring medical attention or were unable to work completely for at least six months. Two in five returned to work within two months, but still needed medical treatment. Nearly one in five (18%) of claimants with long Covid could not return to work for a year or longer after first getting sick. The majority were under the age of 60.
Workforce participation has dropped by about 500,000 people because of Covid, according to one study that looked over time at workers who were out sick for a week. But the actual number could be higher, because not all workers are able to take time off during their illnesses, Bach said.
“It’s likely that long Covid is keeping somewhere around 500,000 to a million full-time-equivalent workers out of work,” said Katie Bach, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Some affected by long Covid have reduced their hours, while others have left the workforce temporarily or permanently – a metric not captured by work absence data, but calculated in labor participation statistics.
Patients who are very sick with long Covid often “try to work for some amount of time and then eventually they drop out”, Bach said.
More than half of long Covid sufferers unable to work after two years: UWV / DutchNews.nl
One-third of applications are from workers in the healthcare sector, who accounted for a high proportion of infections in the first wave of coronavirus in the spring of 2020, when they were exempted from many of the quarantine restrictions so they could keep working on infected wards.
Last month long-term care minister Conny Helder agreed to draw up a package of measures to provide financial support for healthcare workers who have been unable to return to work since contracting coronavirus.
New report warns long COVID could be "mass disabling event" by Mika Pangilinan / Insurance Business Canada
Canada’s chief science adviser has released a report on long COVID, warning that it could have significant long-term impacts on the country’s economy.
In the report, Dr. Mona Nemer called COVID-19 the “head” of the pandemic and long COVID its “tail,” citing the debilitating effects of the disease that can linger long after the initial infection. …
“Some patients have not recovered two to three years after the initial infection and it is uncertain whether a proportion may ever fully recover,” Nemer said in the report, adding that the lack of consensus on a clear definition and diagnostic criteria can make it difficult to lodge claims for social assistance, disability supports, and insurance.
There could be wider socio-economic implications too, as analysis of long COVID in other countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States, indicated “significant impacts on the labour market and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), in addition to health costs and demands.”
Nemer said Canada could face a “mass disabling event,” since it has become “increasingly evident” that long COVID is a serious condition that could raise the risk of several chronic diseases, including diabetes, hypertension and arrhythmia.
Long Covid causing job losses and homelessness in Australia, inquiry hears by Donna Lu / The Guardian
Speaking at the inquiry’s third public hearing on Friday, Labor MP Dr Michelle Ananda-Rajah said, “I think we’re going to probably land on a recommendation that we obviously need national guidelines … and perhaps living guidelines that keep evolving as the data keeps coming in.”
People affected by long Covid told the inquiry about months-long wait times to see specialists, and dismissal of their symptoms by medical professionals.
Administrators of the Australia Long Covid Community Facebook group said some of their members had lost jobs and become homeless due to the condition.
Dr Su Mon Kyaw-Myint, a population health researcher and one of the group’s administrators, said she waited for five months to get into a long Covid clinic, despite being at risk because she has a rare form of muscular dystrophy.
Long COVID Is Keeping So Many Young People Out of Work by Korin Miller / Self
It’s no surprise, then, that recent data also show long COVID is keeping people out of work; when you’re completely exhausted, in pain, or emotionally depleted, it can be tough to do any job, whether you’re on your feet all day or sitting through meeting after meeting. …
All that is to say: Many COVID symptoms can impact a person’s physical, mental, or emotional capacity to work. “If you have brain fog from long COVID, which makes it difficult for you to concentrate in a sustained fashion on anything, that could create difficulty in almost any job,” William Schaffner, MD, infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, tells SELF. People who have symptoms that are difficult to cope with—like chronic pain or fatigue—also “face a challenge, no matter what type of job they have,” he adds.
Diana Berrent Güthe, the founder of the COVID-19 education and resource center Survivor Corps, tells SELF that she’s seen this play out with plenty of the organization’s members. “One thing I can say for sure is people are having tremendous difficulty navigating the disability process,” she explains. “It’s complicated for lawyers, let alone anyone suffering from cognitive dysfunction, extreme fatigue, and tremendous pain.” (Under the American Disabilities Act, long COVID is not always considered to be a disability, and “an individualized assessment is necessary” to determine whether long COVID “substantially limits” a person’s life. Read more about that here.)
COVID was deadly to working-class Americans in 2020, says USF researcher by Sam Ogozalek / Seattle Times
The researchers said the majority of working-class adults in the U.S. were employed in blue collar, service or retail jobs and couldn’t work remotely in the first year of the virus, before vaccines became widely available in 2021.
“Our results support the hypothesis that hazardous conditions of work were a primary driver of joint socioeconomic, gender, and racial/ethnic disparities in COVID-19 mortality,” the researchers wrote.
How has long COVID affected Canada’s workforce? by Holly McKenzie-Sutter / BNN Bloomberg
Data on long COVID in Canada’s labour market is “sparse,” the federal report said, but it contended the illness’ effects could be “profound” based on numbers reported elsewhere in the world.
Some economists have picked up on clues in Canada’s existing labour data that suggest long COVID could be keeping more people out of the workforce.
CIBC economists published a report in January that looked at evidence of a “sicker workforce” in Canada than the one that existed in 2019. They argued that Canada’s low unemployment rate is partly due to employers hiring more people to remain productive because more employees have been off sick.
Number of Britons off work due to long-term sickness hits record high – figures by Holly Williams / Evening Standard
The number of Britons off work due to long-term sickness has reached record levels the latest official figures show, ramping up pressure on the Chancellor ahead of his “back-to-work Budget” on Wednesday.
Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that there were 2.52 million people off work due to long-term sickness in the three months to January – up 2.6% quarter-on-quarter and 7.9% year-on-year and the highest since record began in 1993.
My Blog has a bunch of COVID Information posts you can find here:
Around the Web: Women in Science May Suffer Lasting Career Damage from COVID-19
Around the Web: Scholarly Communications in the Age of the Coronavirus
Around the Web: COVID is airborne so enough with the bullshit hygiene theatre
Around the Web: COVID-19 is airborne and hygiene theatre is the wrong response
The COVID Information Series: The COVID-19 Pandemic Is Not Over!
The COVID Information Series: Dear Joe Biden, The COVID-19 Pandemic Is Not Over!
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