How the modern tragedy of long COVID is affecting our lives and our economy

From the beginning of this pandemic, people who survived COVID-19 have suffered from an array of symptoms that lingered for months — from headaches and dizziness to lightheadedness, sleep issues, brain fog and many others.

Those lingering effects, which can persist for months, even years, are now called long COVID.

This week on Down to Business, Inez Jabalpurwala, global director of VineX, an organization that studies how viruses affect brain health, explains how long COVID is affecting lives, our health-care system, our labour force and much more.

Surveys have shown that anywhere from 10 to 30 per cent of COVID survivors suffer from long COVID, meaning already five per cent of the workforce may be affected.

Part of what makes long COVID hard to diagnose is that it includes a diverse array of both physical and psychological symptoms, and that’s also why, like many chronic illnesses, it often gets ignored as psychosomatic or imagined.

On the plus side, Jabalpurwala said that long COVID is providing an incredible opportunity to study such illnesses, which are not only real but can have a debilitating effect on our lives and economy.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and YouTube where you can also subscribe to get new episodes every Wednesday morning.

If you have any questions about the show, or if there are topics you want us to tackle, email us: [email protected].

• Email: [email protected] | Twitter: GabeFriedz