Long COVID = Diminishing Workforce

"Post-COVID-19 condition [PCC] has the potential to create] significant impacts on the labour market and the Gross Domestic Product [GDP] ."

"PCC has the potential to become a mass-disabling event."

"PCC affects the ability to work and perform daily tasks, creating considerable consequences for individuals and communities. The economic burden of PCC and the implications of the labour market in Canada could be profound."

Mona Nerner, chief science adviser, Canada, task-force report

 

"The annual cost of those lost wages alone is around US$170 billion a year [and potentially as high as US$230 billion]."

World Economic Forum

"People who are going to work are not able to produce at their previous level."

"The brain in a knowledge-based economy is our asset. If that asset is compromised, it absolutely has an impact on our ability at the workplace to be creative, to be resilient, to contribute our full brain function."

Inez Jabalpurwala, global director, VineX

A long Covid patient entering a hospital in Sacramento in 2021. The Government Accountability Office estimates that the illness has affected 7.7 million to 23 million people in the United States.   Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Three years after the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 made its debut on the world stage, we're still licking our wounds and will continue to do so for as long as it's around, and it seems to have no intention of leaving; here to stay. And for many who have survived its impact on their bodies, its symptoms appear also there to stay. Temporarily for many, possibly permanently for some more susceptible to its ravages. 

 

The pandemic has changed everything about how humanity lives, works and plays.

It is becoming increasingly evident that its effects have resulted in a decreased labour force, and that will impact on the immediate condition of many countries' GDP. COVID continues to threaten its impact on the world's workforce to the detriment of economies everywhere. Over 1.4 million people with symptoms lasting for three months or longer in Canada alone have been left bruised as of August 2022.

Canada is now short 4.6 percent of its workforce aged 18 and older, with women likelier to develop Long COVID (PCC) than men. Numbers of people affected is expected to grow with the continued circulation of the coronavirus. And people's lives have changed to a degree beyond belief. Long COVID is debilitating, including crushing fatigue, cough, shortness of breath, pain and cognitive dysfunction (such as brain fog or memory loss, anxiety and depression).

 

Long COVID can mimic immune system disorders like chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia and while some people recover completely, others will not -- with no way to foresee who will be affected in the long term. Although symptoms can last from four months to years, doctors believe that some PCC sufferers may never recover. As it is, symptoms may appear, disappear, then return. Those lingering symptoms can be exacerbated by exercise, stress or undue mental effort. Which has a deleterious effect on holding a job.

Data from the United States and United Kingdom show that disability claims are on the rise, particularly among women. Labour shortages are expected to become dire in sectors traditionally employing mostly women; education, health care and hospitality. Researchers estimate that millions of Americans have been forced out of work. Some 15 million people between 18 to 65 years of age in the U.S. had Long COVID, two to four million stopped working, according to the World Economic Forum.

 

Harvard University researcher David Cutler feels the economic impact could become staggering. As an  economist he believes that Long COVID could take US$3.7 trillion from the U.S. economy as a result of lost wages, decreasing quality of life and medical costs. A 'conservative' estimate, he believes. In December 600,000 working age people became inactive in the labour market in the U.K. since 2020, due to long-term illness.

Beyond the issue of disappearing staff there is lost productivity from workers with PCC who remain n the labour force. Employers are already dealing with staffing shortages and disengaged workers and adding to that, employers face additional costs from increases in long-term disability and medical benefit claims resulting from COVID-19. 

 

Researchers feel that people who have had COVID-19 could be at higher risk of developing chronic health conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke and other conditions. Research shows that while the virus and its variants circulate -- and the scientific consensus is that it will continue to indefinitely, a 'forever' virus -- Long COVID will remain a credible threat.

A woman who suffers from long COVID in her home in Massachusetts. The emergence of long COVID coincides with an increase in women with disabilities. Photo by Brian Snyder/Reuters