Prevalence of Long COVID in the United States
Because there is no test for Long COVID, it is difficult to determine how many people are affected by the condition. However, recent surveys from the United States show that around 15 percent of the total population may have had Long COVID as of July 2023, with around 28 percent of those who had been infected with COVID-19 experiencing long-term symptoms from the disease. Long COVID is more common among women in the United States than men and those aged 40 to 59 years who had been infected with COVID-19 were more likely to report ever experiencing Long COVID than other age groups. The states with the highest share of people who previously had COVID-19, with symptoms lasting three months or longer are Mississippi, West Virginia, and New Mexico. In Mississippi, up to 40 percent of those who had COVID-19 reported suffering from Long COVID. It is estimated that over 38 million people in the United States have or continue to have symptoms of Long COVID.Deaths caused by Long COVID
Although the possibility of death due to Long COVID is much lower than during the initial phase of infection, Long COVID does contribute to death. Recent research has shown that those who suffer from Long COVID are more likely to experience cardiovascular events such as stroke and heart failure or develop pulmonary conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and moderate or severe asthma than those who have never had COVID-19. However, Long COVID accounted for less than one percent of total deaths from COVID-19 every month during the first two years of the pandemic except for one. Furthermore, the estimated death rate due to Long COVID is substantially lower than that of COVID-19. For example, from July 2021 to June 2022, the death rate from COVID-19 among men was about 1,312 per million population, while the rate of death due to Long COVID was just 7.3 per million population. The death rate of Long COVID increases with age but is still significantly lower than the COVID-19 death rate for every age group. Nonetheless, Long COVID is thought to have a substantial economic impact in the United States with one study estimating the condition could cost the country almost 2.2 trillion U.S. dollars in reduced quality of life and a further 528 billion dollars in increased medical spending.
