probablyasocialecologist:

Covid is still a leading killer, the third-biggest in the US last year behind heart disease and cancer. Unlike with other common causes of death such as smoking and traffic accidents that led to safety laws, though, politicians aren’t pushing for ways to reduce the harm, such as mandated vaccinations or masking in closed spaces.

“The general desire in the world is to move beyond the pandemic and put Covid behind us, but we can’t put our heads in the sand,” said Ziyad Al-Aly, director of the Clinical Epidemiology Center at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System in Missouri. “Covid still infects and kills a lot of people. We have the means to reduce that burden.”

[…]

Long Covid, estimated to affect around 10% of infected people, is considered one of the biggest post-pandemic medical challenges. The economic costs are also significant.

In the US, long Covid was estimated to cost around $50 billion a year in lost salaries as of late 2022. In the UK, the Institute for Fiscal Studies last year estimated that about one in 10 people with long Covid have to stop working as a result. The number of people with those symptoms, including brain fog, breathing difficulties and fatigue, are rising even as infections are decreasing.

It’s particularly scary for high-risk people, who’ve had to return to work and public spaces where masks are sparse and the dangers are invisible. A family wedding can still turn into a super-spreader event, and a flight can be catastrophic.