Over the past two years, the media, politicians, public health authorities, and others have paid close attention to the number of lives lost to COVID-19: more than 800,000 Americans so far. Yet we hear much less about a second number: the Americans who have lost their health to COVID-19.

Millions of COVID-19 patients have developed a range of debilitating symptoms that last for months or even years. They are being diagnosed with “post-acute sequelae of COVID-19”—or more colloquially, long Covid. Yet we know little about these people—how many there are, why they stay sick, or what the impact is on their lives. Among these knowledge gaps is the fact that public health and economics experts have almost no understanding of long Covid’s economic burden.

This piece explores data suggesting that long Covid is contributing to record high numbers of unfilled jobs by keeping millions of people from getting back to work.

With 10.6 million unfilled jobs across the country, the months-long labor shortage is weighing on the U.S. economy. Small businesses are losing money due to understaffing. Local governments are struggling to fill jobs. Investors are spooked, and corporate profits are taking a hit.

Economists have proposed a number of explanations, including a decline in workers’ willingness to tolerate low pay and poor working conditions, lack of access to child care, concerns about contracting COVID-19, higher household savings, and demographic and immigration trends. Yet they rarely mention long Covid.

Read the full article about long COVID by Katie Bach at Brookings.