A new study conducted by the ME/CFS Research Foundation in collaboration with Risklayer and researchers from Germany and Australia has estimated the societal costs of Long Covid and ME/CFS to be over 60 billion euros per year. The report will be presented at the ME/CFS conference in Berlin on May 13th. Long Covid, also known as Post Covid, is a new long-term illness that has emerged since the pandemic and the research team has calculated the number of cases in Germany and the societal costs over the first four years of the pandemic, from 2020 to 2024. ME/CFS, or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, is a severe chronic illness that some Long Covid patients develop and there were already hundreds of thousands of cases before the pandemic, as other viral infections can also trigger ME/CFS. Despite being a common and severe illness, it was largely ignored and under-researched by the medical community for decades. The number of Long Covid patients reached its peak in 2022 with around 2.7 million new cases and the research team expects around 870,000 cases by the end of 2024. The number of ME/CFS patients before the pandemic was around 400,000, but this has significantly increased to an estimated 650,000 by the end of 2024. Both Long Covid and ME/CFS can be so severe that patients become unable to work and require care, resulting in over 250 billion euros in societal costs over the four years. The costs were estimated to be around 73 billion euros in 2022 and 63 billion euros in 2024. The numbers are subject to some uncertainty, as accurate data on the prevalence of ME/CFS before the pandemic are lacking. The study’s author, Jörg Heydecke, called for more investment in research and urged the government to prioritize funding for research into these illnesses. While Donald Trump is trying to cut public funding for research in the US, Heydecke believes that Germany has a responsibility to invest in this area. “If we don’t do it, no one else will” he said.
Societal Costs Exceed 60 Billion Euros Per Year
