{"id":251333,"date":"2026-05-21T08:25:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T12:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/21\/long-covid-will-cost-the-us-an-estimated-8-billion-over-just-3-years-due-to-healthcare-burden-managing-symptoms-and-loss-to-the-workforce\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T09:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:05:10","slug":"long-covid-will-cost-the-us-an-estimated-8-billion-over-just-3-years-due-to-healthcare-burden-managing-symptoms-and-loss-to-the-workforce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/21\/long-covid-will-cost-the-us-an-estimated-8-billion-over-just-3-years-due-to-healthcare-burden-managing-symptoms-and-loss-to-the-workforce\/","title":{"rendered":"Long COVID will cost the US an estimated $8 billion over just 3 years due to healthcare burden, managing symptoms and loss to the workforce"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long COVID will cost the US an estimated $8 billion over just 3 years due to healthcare burden, managing symptoms and loss to the workforce<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/theconversation.com\/long-covid-will-cost-the-us-an-estimated-8-billion-over-just-3-years-due-to-healthcare-burden-managing-symptoms-and-loss-to-the-workforce-280350<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-21 08:25:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: theconversation.com<\/a><\/p>\n

The Conversation, CC-BY-ND.<\/span><\/p>\n

Headlines on long COVID have become much more rare than during the first few years of the COVID-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean the more than 44 million Americans who have at some point reported long COVID symptoms \u2013 a number that continues to grow \u2013 are no longer suffering, or that the U.S. isn\u2019t paying for it. <\/p>\n

Long COVID refers to a condition where at least one of the COVID-19 symptoms, such as fatigue, shortness of breath, and headaches, persists for more than three months. <\/p>\n

We are artificial intelligence and computational modeling researchers who have been developing and using these methods to aid communications and decision-making in public health. For this study, we worked in a collaborative team of public health and infectious disease experts.<\/p>\n

Our team\u2019s study, which was published in 2025 in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, estimated that the total economic burden of long COVID will likely exceed US$8 billion between 2025 and the end of 2027. <\/p>\n

This study entailed developing and running a computational simulation model that represented what might happen to each person after suffering COVID-19, including the risk of that person developing different types of long COVID and the resulting symptoms, healthcare costs and lost-work productivity. <\/p>\n

Based on our simulations, a single case of long COVID could cost the U.S. an average of between $9,906 and $11,646 annually, with more severe cases costing even more. Productivity losses would account for well over 90% of these costs, which means that employers around the country will be affected.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

With no cure available, people who have long COVID are left to simply manage the symptoms.<\/span>
\n Counter\/DigitalVision via Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n

More questions than answers<\/h2>\n

Studies have suggested that somewhere between 6%-20%…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long COVID will cost the US an estimated $8 billion over just 3 years due…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":251334,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/736573\/original\/file-20260518-58-jofvl0.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&rect=0%2C215%2C6999%2C3499&q=45&auto=format&w=1356&h=668&fit=crop","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-251333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251333"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251335,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251333\/revisions\/251335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}