Thread by @ECooperAuthor

I feel like we should be talking more about the GAO report on #LongCovid that stated, "The full magnitude of health and economic effects [of Long Covid] is unknown but is expected to be significant." a 🧵 gao.gov/products/gao-2…

What is the GAO you ask? The US Government Accountability Office is a non-partisan agency that uses data to evaluate how much something is gonna cost us. That's it. Their mandate is to, "improve the performance of government, ensuring transparency and saving money."

After reviewing the data available on #LongCovid, the GAO concluded that it, "has potentially affected up to 23 million Americans, pushing an estimated 1 million people out of work."

The very concise (well supported with citations), 2 page report covers what we know medically about Long Covid and concludes that LC will have a serious impact on the US economy via lost labor and increasing need for social services. Here's a PDF link: gao.gov/assets/gao-22-…

At this point, I've given up trying to appeal to people's empathy. I've also given up trying to convince people to protect themselves because of the risk to their long-term health. Maybe if we can show people that this will actually hurt our economy they will care?

Never mind that you or your children might have permanent neuro-inflammatory brain damage, or develop diabetes, or have long-term vascular/mitochondrial dysfunction, will an all but guaranteed economic slowdown prompt politicians to take action?

It's an approach I'm willing to try. Of course the larger issue is what needs to be done to change things. Simple policy initiatives like mask mandates in public indoor spaces, an Indoor Clean Air Act to fund ventilation and filtration in schools and other public buildings...

These are the most obvious first steps to reduce new cases. But then we also need to expand things like paid sick leave and social/economic support for those already affected by #LongCovid. We need to expand funding for agile, iterative medical research into treatments.

Hell, we need universal healthcare and a massive shift in values surrounding the funding, support, and medical care available for chronically ill people in general (especially those with poorly researched diseases). #MEcfs #NEISvoid #MCAS

All of these things are the morally right thing to do, but since that clearly isn't enough to motivate action, I propose we spend more time talking about how poor companies and the country's economic growth will suffer.

I hate constantly raging on this topic but I genuinely believe that, if we don't take some kind of action, we will face the economic and social consequences of our short sighted approach to Covid and the GAO agrees that it won't be pretty.