"Long COVID" isn't rare. It's a health crisis.

The misconceptions around long Covid are due in part to the mistaken belief that it is rare. But it’s not. Approximately 30 percent of Covid patients in a new but small study from the University of Washington reported that symptoms persisted months after their infection. If confirmed on a bigger scale, this suggests that long Covid could be one of the largest mass disabling events in modern history.

There could be millions of Americans experiencing long Covid, and many may need health care and workplace accommodations. Patients report long waiting lists at the few medical centers with programs to specifically treat people with long Covid.

Long Covid is one of the most devastating outcomes of the pandemic, and will likely put a strain on our society and economy for years to come. There is little to indicate that global health systems are prepared for it. In response to this lack of recognition, long Covid patient advocacy is emerging as a health movement that will be increasingly hard for governments to ignore.