![]() ![]() For one, there's no clinical definition of long COVID, Lambert said. ![]() "People in employment are doing the best to keep up work performance and hide the fact that they have an invisible illness so they don't get fired," Lambert said.īut there are challenges in getting employers, insurers and others to acknowledge that someone has long COVID. Many long COVID sufferers are continuing to work despite their daily struggle to function, she said. "It's a dark side of American culture that we don't believe people unless they look sick." "The phrase, 'You don't look sick' is the most common thing people report that people say to them," Lambert noted. Long COVID sufferers can face challenges in receiving accommodations in the workplace, or may not be believed when they say they are struggling with symptoms since it can be an "invisible" illness, noted Natalie Lambert, an associate professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine who studies COVID-19. There's some research indicating that vaccinations can help prevent cases of long COVID, but other studies suggest that some vaccinated people still develop the chronic condition even after getting the jab. Given the surge in Omicron variant infections, the number of people dealing with long COVID is likely to rise, experts say. He added, "People should be scared, but they also need to be informed." "I had a mild infection, and I'm still sick two years later." "This is the most infuriating thing to people with long COVID," he told CBS MoneyWatch. Some people have turned to expensive treatments that can cost thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses, he noted.įrom his perspective as a long COVID sufferer who was struggling to get through the workday before going on disability, McCone expressed frustration that the risks of ending up with a chronic illness is not more widely discussed. McCone said long-haulers face a lot of uncertainty, given there's no prognosis on recovery time or approved treatment for the disease, which means sufferers have no idea how long it could take for them to heal or what medical treatments could help. "I feel like I'm a cellphone battery that is constantly dying," McCone said. He is on short-term disability after developing debilitating symptoms following a COVID-19 infection in March of 2020. I might be able to do one to two hours a week right now." Charlie McCone, 32, in his antigravity chair that he uses for rest. "My recovery has been so slow, and it's very debilitating. It's like, 'How am I going to support myself?'" McCone said. "This instills a deep terror, like when you can't get out of bed. But his disability runs out in March, and McCone worries that he won't be well enough by then to return to his marketing job. McCone, who lives in San Francisco, said he's able to get by on his short-term disability payments, which replaced about two-thirds of his income, although he's had to dip into savings, partly to cover medical costs for his long COVID-19 treatments. I feel like I'm a cellphone battery that is constantly dying." "You can work through pain if you have to, but you can't work through having zero energy. "Now my symptoms of fatigue and cognitive issues have gotten so much worse, and they are so much more disabling when you need to work," McCone said. McCone said his long COVID symptoms were finally starting to improve in 2021, but he then contracted COVID-19 a second time. One of those workers struggling with long COVID is Charlie McCone, a 32-year-old who is on short-term disability after developing the chronic illness following a COVID-19 infection in March of 2020. She added, "A conservative estimate of cases of long COVID is almost 19 million - and any percentage of those being unable to work will have significant impacts on the economy." "How am I going to support myself?" "What we saw in our patient-led research collaborative study is that about two-thirds of survey respondents had to reduce hours or stop working completely." "This is really a massive issue for workers," McCorkell said. The impact is much wider than generally known, affecting the finances of long COVID sufferers as well as the broader economy, said Lisa McCorkell, researcher at the Patient-Led Research Collaborative, a group created by long COVID sufferers who were among the first to do research on the condition. The findings also highlight what advocates for long-COVID patients have said they've been warning about since the early days of the pandemic, when it became clear that anywhere from 10% to 30% of people with COVID-19 continued to struggle with symptoms for months after their initial infection.
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