Using current estimates of US long-COVID burden (assuming the probability of long COVID is 6% and symptoms last 1 year), cases cost an average of $2.01 billion annually. The economic burden of long COVID already surpasses that of carpal tunnel, Lyme disease, and psoriasis, the authors said, and is likely to continue to grow.
Despite long covid’s vast reach, the federal government’s investment in researching the disease — to the tune of $1.15 billion as of December — has so far failed to bring any new treatments to market.
