Authors: Greg Iacurci CNBC<\/p>\n\n\n\n
KEY POINTS<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sam Norpel used to present regular financial updates to C-suite executives.Now, unpredictable bouts of broken, staccato speech make that impossible for the former e-commerce executive.Despite being up to date with vaccines and boosters, Norpel, 48, got Covid-19 in December 2021, when the highly transmissible omicron variant was fueling record U.S. caseloads.She never got better \u2014 and in fact, feels worse, with a range of debilitating symptoms that make it impossible to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her halting speech can be triggered by something as innocuous as cold water or cool air on the skin. Extreme noise sensitivity requires her to wear noise-canceling headphones all day. She\u2019s also endured a low-grade migraine for nearly a year, which can flare up after prolonged screen time. When it comes to her body and mind, \u201cthe computer is just slow,\u201d said Norpel, who lives with her family outside Philadelphia. \u201cRight now, for me, 48 [years old] feels like 78.\u201d Norpel is one of millions of Americans with long Covid, also known as long-haul Covid, post-Covid or post-acute Covid syndrome. While definitions vary, long Covid is, at its core, a chronic illness with symptoms that persist for months or years after a Covid infection. Up to 30% of Americans who get Covid-19 have developed long-haul symptoms, affecting as many as 23 million Americans, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Long Covid could be \u2018the next public health disaster\u2019… The country is about to enter its fourth calendar year of the coronavirus outbreak, and new variants are expected to make for a tough winter. Researchers think most Americans have had Covid-19 at this point. Studies suggest subsequent infections raise the chances of an \u201cadverse\u201d outcome, including hospitalization and death. The virus has killed more than 1 million Americans to date, and some 2,000 more die each week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Long Covid demonstrates that the virus is taking a lingering, pervasive and perhaps even more insidious toll. Medical experts have called it \u201cthe next public health disaster in the making.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are just large numbers of people affected by this,\u201d said Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children\u2019s Hospital and a dean at Baylor College of Medicine. That number will \u201conly continue to grow\u201d as Covid-19 continues to circulate, HHS said in a recent report. \u201cThis could be game-changing in terms of how we do medical practice, in the same way HIV\/AIDs was a game-changer,\u201d Hotez said. … one with a significant financial toll But the tentacles of long Covid reach far beyond its medical impact: from the labor gap to disability benefits, life insurance, household debt, forfeit retirement savings and financial ruin. This article is the first of a CNBC special report examining long Covid\u2019s destructive impact on individuals, families and the U.S. economy at large. All told, long Covid is a $3.7 trillion drag on the U.S. economy \u2014 about 17% of our nation\u2019s pre-pandemic economic output, said David Cutler, an economist at Harvard University. The aggregate cost rivals that of the Great Recession, Cutler wrote in a July report. Cutler revised the $3.7 trillion total upward by $1.1 trillion from an initial report in October 2020, due to the \u201cgreater prevalence of long Covid than we had guessed at the time.\u201d Even that revised estimate is conservative: It is based on the 80.5 million confirmed U.S. Covid cases at the time of the analysis, and doesn\u2019t account for future caseloads. Higher medical spending accounts for $528 billion of the total. But lost earnings and reduced quality of life are other sinister trickle-down effects, which respectively cost Americans $997 billion and $2.2 trillion. \u201cLong Covid will be around long after the pandemic subsides, impacting our communities, our health care system, our economy and the well-being of future generations,\u201d the HHS report said. Norpel was the household breadwinner, which allowed her husband to care for their kids. The family has been living on income from a long-term disability policy, a vestige of her old job; the funds replace just a third of her prior pay. Norpel\u2019s husband must now juggle caretaking duties and the necessity of finding work, both for income and health insurance. The money worries are multitude: the ability to continue funding her daughter\u2019s college education, the odds of raiding retirement accounts or selling their home to subsist. Norpel\u2019s 16-year old son recently wondered if he should get a job to support the family; but he doesn\u2019t even have a driver\u2019s license. \u201cAll of it is just very heartbreaking,\u201d said Norpel, adding that \u201clong Covid changed everything.\u201d What is long Covid? It \u2018depends on who you ask\u2019 While there are still many unknowns about long Covid \u2014 shorthand for its scientific name \u201cpost-acute sequelae of Covid,\u201d or PASC \u2014 what we do know so far is startling, experts say. Anyone who\u2019s had Covid-19 can develop the condition. People can get it regardless of the severity of their initial infection or the virus variant, according to the World Health Organization. It affects all age groups, even those who were previously fit and healthy. Studies suggest women are at higher risk than men; one study found adult females to be twice as likely to have long-haul symptoms. People of color are also more likely to get sick due to the increased likelihood of a Covid-19 infection and less access to high-quality health care; it\u2019s also more common in bisexual and trans people due to reduced care access and the stigma regarding their gender or sexuality, the HHS said in an October report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the medical community hasn\u2019t arrived at an exact definition of long Covid, which complicates diagnosis and treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The definition \u201cdepends on who you ask right now,\u201d said Dr. Greg Vanichkachorn, medical director of the Mayo Clinic\u2019s Covid Activity Rehabilitation Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are some of the points on which opinions diverge:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What experts do know is that for some, long Covid symptoms can last months or even years. About 15% of people whose ailments persist three months after infection continued to experience symptoms at least 12 months after infection, according to the meta-analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meredith Hurst, a paralegal, is one of those people. Hurst caught Covid in November 2020. She was diagnosed with long Covid in December 2021; now, two years after the initial infection, she still hasn\u2019t recovered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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