7% of all adults—roughly 17 million people—reported currently having long COVID in March 2024. Those numbers are on par with the number of people who have cancer (17 million in 2020) and almost as many as the number with coronary artery disease (over 20 million in 2023). Among the 60% of U.S. adults who have had COVID, roughly 3 in 10 report having long COVID at some point and roughly 1 in 10 report having long COVID now.

Long Covid symptoms create a greater burden of disability than heart disease or cancer.

https://youhavetoliveyour.life/

In January 2020, less than 100 cases had ever been reported anywhere. By January 2021, there were 5 million cases per week; in January 2022 and 2023, there were over 20 million cases per week. How many cases we have today in January 2024 is less clear—the end of the emergency has led to a dramatic reduction in testing. The CDC still reports COVID hospitalizations, and, in the week of January 6, 2024, there were about 35,000 hospitalizations due to COVID across the US. By comparison, there were 44,000 hospitalizations at the same time in 2023. These numbers are not very different. 

All pandemics end eventually. Some, like SARS, end with the rapid elimination of disease. Others, like the plague, end with the disease finally fading into obscurity after leaving it’s mark for many generations. Still others, like the 1918 influenza pandemic, see the disease growing milder without disappearing. And some, like smallpox, continue to cause high levels of illness, death, and disability, until we all agree that enough is enough and take action. 

With nearly as many hospitalizations in January 2024 as in January 2023, it’s clear that COVID is not growing milder and it’s not fading away. The real question, then, is not whether COVID is still a pandemic, but how much COVID illness and death are we willing to accept?