An incomplete picture: understanding the burden of long Covid

Miranda is a Consultant in the health practice of Economist Impact's Policy & Insights team. She works within a multidisciplinary team on research and analysis programmes across the health sector and provides support for several research projects on health policy and health equity.

Miranda holds a Master of Public Health in Health Policy and Law from Boston University, with a specialisation in Human Rights and Social Justice. Her professional focus lies in promoting evidence-based public health policy and bridging the gap between research and politics. 

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Long Covid is a complex condition that shows no sign of going away. The stakes are too high to leave so many people with insufficient care.

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, a new challenge has emerged: the phenomenon of long Covid. Given its novelty, long Covid is not well understood. More work must be done to better understand the scale and scope of this condition. While stakeholders work to improve their understanding, they must also focus on ways to mitigate its impact.

Key findings

• Disparate views on how to describe and study long Covid continue to inhibit understanding. Due to the wide variation in long Covid manifestations and its relative novelty, several working definitions of long Covid exist-with many specifying different symptomology and disease periods. The lack of consensus presents significant global challenges in understanding the scale and scope of long Covid-and providing support for individuals affected by it.
• Long Covid's physical symptoms suggest that it may represent a family of diseases, each capable of exerting a heavy individual burden. Individuals affected by long Covid experience a spectrum of persistent symptoms, including shortness of breath, chronic fatigue and brain fog, which can extend for months or even years after acute infection. The comprehensive impact of long Covid on patients' lives underscores the urgent need for holistic support and intervention to address the multifaceted burdens they face.
• The impact, especially on those most severely affected, can upend lives and finances. The impact of the condition ranges from mild to debilitating, leading to an inability to participate in routine activities, decreased workforce participation and reduced quality of life. And individuals with long Covid commonly face stigma.
• Prevalence reports in our study countries vary widely due to diverse methodologies, but experts estimate that between 2% and 7% of the population likely have long Covid in some form. Recent studies of long Covid report incredible variation in the prevalence of long Covid. What is clear is that millions of people around the world have been impacted by this condition.
• Good practices are emerging in long Covid care. Encouragingly, some countries have put policies in place to address long Covid. Best practice policies encourage multi-disciplinary, patient-centred care while supporting the social and economic needs of long Covid patients. 

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