ounding on three years into the coronavirus pandemic, scientists project there are over 100 million COVID long haulers worldwide. A recent Brookings Institution study estimated that around 16 million working-age Americans currently have Long COVID, costing $168 billion a year in lost earnings, not to mention the missed personal and professional opportunities and the high toll it takes on families. And countless more will suffer from it before the pandemic is in our collective rearview mirror. Post-viral illnesses, like chronic fatigue syndrome among others, are not new, but in the wake of Long COVID, how they are analyzed and treated is groundbreaking. The patient-led medicine that has come to the fore to seek answers will have long-lasting ripple effects on the medical establishment and on how post-viral illnesses are diagnosed and treated. It is to this topic that former CNN reporter Ryan Prior turns in his new book. Prior, a long-time chronic fatigue syndrome patient, who also suffered from Long COVID, focuses on long haulers and the patient-centered groups that sprung up around it in THE LONG HAUL: SOLVING THE PUZZLE OF THE PANDEMIC’S LONG HAULERS AND HOW THEY ARE CHANGING HEALTHCARE FOREVER
