Long Covid poses significant risk to Australia’s economy: infectious disease expert

A top infectious disease expert says Queenslanders cannot afford to ignore the growing issue of long Covid and the severe economic hardship it threatens.

A top infectious disease expert has warned Australia would face severe economic hardship if it does not properly address the growing issue of long Covid, while urging Queenslanders to catch up to the rest of the country and get their booster shots.

Epidemiologist and Associate Principal Research Fellow for the Burnet Institute, Professor Mike Toole, says long Covid remains heavily under-reported and could pose a significant risk to Australia’s economy if left undetected.

He said with politicians now focused on the message of “moving on” from Covid, Australians have forgotten how deadly the virus can be, an attitude which may end up creating more long Covid cases.

“Every health minister and finance minister in the country should be biting their nails,” Mr Toole said.

“There’s no systematic reporting of long Covid, it’s under-reported and not something that your average GP can diagnose and treat under the Medicare limits of consultation.

Associate Principal Research Fellow at Burnet with decades of experiences as a Epidemiologist, Professor Mike Toole. Picture supplied

“It also bares no relationship to the severity of the initial (Covid) infection and we don’t yet know how common it is in children.

“We really are facing a severe economic and social problem.”

Mr Toole says long Covid is particularly concerning with Australia’s Covid infection numbers now nearing 10 million, including 3809 new cases in Queensland today.

He said the Omicron variant “outsmarted us” and it’s time for governments to start encouraging mask wearing and booster shots, especially Queensland which is significantly lagging behind other states.

“The Queensland chief health officer has talked about this wall of immunity and the more people that get infected the bottom, but that defies all the evidence at the moment,” Mr Toole said.

“A minimum of 5 per cent of people who had Covid within the last 12 months are at risk of getting long Covid however, I would suspect that number would be higher, more like 10 per cent at six months.

“It is alarming. We are up to almost 10 million cases in Australia, 10 per cent of that is 1 million – 5 per cent is half a million.

“Look at Queensland, it reported 3809 cases today, so you could reasonably expect that from today’s new cases, 400-500 people have long Covid.”

Queenslanders are being urged to wear masks as the risk of long Covid increases. Picture: David Clark

Queensland recorded 35 Covid-related deaths on Wednesday, with 656 people now in hospital with the virus, 21 of those in intensive care.

Mr Toole said those who experience mild Covid symptoms are not exempt from the sometimes harsh diagnosis of long Covid, as Australia’s understanding of long Covid continues to evolve.

“There’s quite a lot of contradictory information about how frequent long Covid is … risk factors do include having diabetes, obesity and other chronic conditions,” he said.

“What remains unknown is reinfections,” he said.

“A very large study that has not yet been published in the US by veterans found that each new infection was more severe than the previous one … while other UK studies found that reinfection causes milder disease.

“People now shouldn't just be thinking about whether they might get Covid and have a mild illness, because if they have a mild illness they are just as likely to get long Covid than an 80-year-old who ended up in hospital – young women in particular.

“Wear masks and avoid poorly ventilated areas, but Queenslanders really need to get that booster rate up – it’s probably more important than masks because it will keep you out of hospital.”