A cause of America's labor shortage: Millions with long COVID

[Nevilledog]

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Denise Dewald, MD 🗽
@denise_dewald
We have an ongoing mass-disabling event, and we are in denial about it.

There is a labor gap of 1.6 million Americans caused by long Covid, accounting for more than half of the labor shortage.

Letting Covid rip is going to cripple our economy.

cbsnews.com
A cause of America's labor shortage: Millions with long COVID
As many as 30% of people with COVID develop the long-term illness, with many sufferers struggling to return to work.
5:50 AM · Feb 3, 2022

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/long-covid-labor-market-missing-workers/

One of the puzzles of the pandemic economy is the ongoing labor shortage, with business owners struggling to find workers amid the so-called "Great Resignation." But new research points to another — and more troubling — factor that helps explain the nation's shrinking workforce: long COVID.

Millions of Americans are struggling with long-term symptoms after contracting COVID-19, with many of them unable to work due to chronic health issues. Katie Bach, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said she was "floored" when she started crunching the numbers on the ranks of workers who have stepped out of the job market due to long COVID.

Her analysis found that an equivalent of 1.6 million people are missing from the full-time workforce because of the disease, which can leave people incapacitated for months with persistent symptoms including fatigue, brain fog, headaches, memory loss and heart palpitations.

"It was so much bigger than I thought it would be," Bach told CBS MoneyWatch. "Then it was like, `Why is no one talking about this?'"

*snip*

[SoCalDavidS]

1. Americans Do Denial Better Than Any Other Country In The World!

Denial Is Our Jam!

[Orrex]

3. Well put

Tragically well put.

[Orrex]

2. But the important thing is to get people back in their cubes to breathe on each other

We're better together, and all that.

The last thing we should do at a time like this is take any step that might compromise the immediate profits of corporations that would happily let all of their employees die to boost their balance sheet for the quarter.

[onecaliberal]

7. Ive been in my cube forced back by my boss for the entire thing. Even when our own HR was working

from home for 6 months.

[Raven123]

4. No one is talking about it because our public health infrastructure is nonexistent

No national tracking system. Not hard to figure out.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. "Why is no one talking about this?"

WHAT??? And make people have to address the issue???

[Diamond_Dog]

6. Of course

Republicans just go around stating that people are too lazy to work.

I’m getting sick and tired of hearing their bellyaching.

[Shermann]

8. We'll never know the real number

There's no test for it, and it's likely a suitcase term for a variety of ailments.