January 2025 Newsletter

By keeping so many people out of the workforce, long COVID has had a significant impact on the economy. A recent Yale-led study found that up to 14% of previously young, healthy individuals in the US had not returned to work three months after receiving a long COVID diagnosis. New research estimates that over 400 million people worldwide have developed long COVID at some point, resulting in an annual global economic cost of $1 trillion.

Long COVID presents a significant drain on healthcare resources and has been found to have reduced the US labor force by half a million people in the US. This impact is expected to be ongoing.

The most effective tool for preventing long COVID is COVID-19 vaccinations, which can reduce the likelihood of getting the infection and can reduce the odds of developing long COVID if you do get the infection.

The RECOVER initiative made important progress in 2024 toward its mission to understand, diagnose, treat, and prevent long COVID. Six clinical trials were launched this year to seek treatments for various long COVID symptoms, and now 8 trials are studying 13 potential treatments to help manage 5 symptom areas.

In August, the NIH announced the next phase of RECOVER, called RECOVER-TLC (RECOVER- Treating Long COVID), which is an effort focused on clinical trials and finding treatments to manage long COVID symptoms.

Some notable long COVID findings in 2024:

• common long COVID symptoms differ between adults and children
• RECOVER researchers found parts of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, in the blood of people with long COVID
• to date, there are no routine lab tests available for diagnosing long COVID
• prior to February 2025, RECOVER wants input from long COVID patients to better prepare for the RECOVER-TLC initiative

New findings from the NIH's RECOVER initiative suggest that the virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, may be associated with an increase in the numbers of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).

ME/CFS is a complex, serious and chronic condition that often occurs following an infection. People with long COVID experience similar symptoms to those with ME/CFS. Researchers have determined that new cases of ME/CFS are 15 times higher than pre-pandemic levels.

These findings provide additional evidence that infections, including COVID-19, can lead to the development of ME/CFS or long COVID.

A new study finds that Paxlovid was found to reduce symptom intensity, viral activities and fatalities for patients with COVID-19, and now for some patients with long COVID. A group of individuals who developed long COVID, all of whom had varying symptoms, were examined. Some of these patients experienced notable relief of their symptoms after a 15-day course of Paxlovid; however, other patients reported no relief. These findings will allow researchers to explore more options for antiviral treatment in patients with long COVID. Although not a “silver bullet”, says Alison Cohen, PhD, MPD, “It may help a lot of people in a meaningful way.”

Stony Brook University recently conducted a study identifying 470+ long COVID patients and found that nearly 85 percent of these patients had experienced multiple COVID-19 infections from March 2020 to February 2024. The study also showed that vaccination reduced the risk of developing long COVID prior to infection. To date, this is one of few studies that investigate what puts patients at risk for long COVID and what causes the condition. This study has potential to serve as a foundational assessment for ongoing long COVID research.

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