Long COVID may be keeping up to 4 million Americans from working

While a typical case of COVID-19 can prevent people from working for a few days or weeks, long COVID — the term for cases in which symptoms persist for months or even years — is forcing some workers to retreat from the labor force altogether.

An estimated 16 million working-age Americans suffer from long COVID, according to Census Bureau data. Between 2 million and 4 million of those adults are unable to work because of the condition, according to a recent report from the non-profit Brookings Institution that examines the disease's effect on the nation's labor force. 

Symptoms of long COVID include extreme tiredness and fatigue; shortness of breath; difficulty thinking or concentrating, also known as "brain fog"; headaches; muscle pain and more, all of which can impair workers' ability to do their job. The condition doesn't only take a toll on an individual's health, but has economic implications as well, with sufferers losing at least $170 billion a year in missed wages, the think-tank found.