New research found that over 70% of New York workers who filed COVID-related worker's compensation claims still required medical treatment or could not work six months after filing.
The study, which provides concrete evidence of the long-term problems some people suffer from COVID infections, also found that 18% of long COVID patients had not returned to work a year after getting sick. Of those patients, more than 75% were younger than 60 years old.
More:
- The research was published by New York State Insurance Fund, New York's largest worker's compensation insurer, based on the fund's internal data.
- Patients in the study filed for worker's compensation following COVID infections incurred during working in high-risk environments like hospitals and grocery stores in the first two years of the pandemic.
- The report said that long COVID is "an underappreciated yet important reason for the many unfilled jobs and declining labor participation rate in the economy."
- Gaurav Vasisht, executive director and chief executive officer of the insurance fund, said that the study's estimates are "conservative" because they don't account for long COVID patients who continued working despite their illness.
Zoom Out:
- The Government Accountability Office estimated that long COVID continues to affect between 7.7 million and 23 million Americans.
- Brookings Institution fellow Katie Bach estimated in her own work that half a million people in the U.S. are out of work due to long COVID.
