Experts say long COVID-19 could cost U.S. economy trillions: report

NEW YORK, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Experts predict that long COVID-19 is likely to cost the U.S. economy trillions of dollars and will almost certainly affect multiple industries, U.S. website WebMD reported this week.

"The total economic loss could be as high as 3.7 trillion dollars," the website said, citing David Cutler, an economics professor at Harvard University.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4 million working-age Americans are too sick with long COVID-19 to perform their jobs, said Katie Bach, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution and the author of a study looking into long COVID-19's impact on the labor market.

"That works out to as much as 230 billion dollars in lost wages, or almost 1 percent of the U.S. GDP (gross domestic product)," said the website.