Trending Now - Long COVID Impacts One in Six Patients, Study Reveals

WHO:

CIDRAP - Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital led the study.

WBUR - Hossein Estiri, PhD, is the senior author of the study and leader of MGB’s clinical augmented intelligence research group.

WBUR - Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly is a long COVID expert and professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis.

WBUR - Beth Pollack is a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

WBUR - Dr. Sandeep Jubbal is an infectious disease specialist at UMass Memorial Health.

WBUR - Beth Stelson is a social epidemiologist and a member of the Patient-Led Research Collaborative.

WHAT:

CIDRAP - A study published in JAMA Network Open estimates that roughly one in six people infected with SARS-CoV-2 develop long COVID.

CIDRAP - The study identified 74,560 long-COVID patients, representing 16.3% of COVID patients analyzed.

CIDRAP - The estimate translates to roughly 15 million Americans potentially affected by long COVID.

WBUR - The study suggests that at least 10 million Americans have long COVID but have not been diagnosed.

WBUR - 89.3% of long-COVID patients developed at least one chronic condition requiring ongoing clinical management.

WBUR - The World Health Organization estimates that 6% of COVID patients develop chronic symptoms.

WBUR - A 2024 report from the CDC indicated that 18% of U.S. adults surveyed experienced long COVID.

WHERE:

CIDRAP - The study analyzed health record data from 457,950 adults treated for COVID-19 across 58 hospitals and clinics in New England, Southeast Texas, Southern California, and Western Pennsylvania.

WHEN:

CIDRAP - The prevalence of long COVID increased across all studied regions through mid-2024.

WBUR - The study was published last week in the medical journal JAMA Network Open.

WHY:

CIDRAP - The researchers identified long COVID cases by detecting symptoms and conditions that emerged after infection and could not be explained by preexisting conditions.

WBUR - Estiri stated that the healthcare system often fails to connect symptoms back to COVID, leading to underdiagnosis.

HOW:

CIDRAP - The study used health record data analysis to identify long COVID cases.

WBUR - Researchers employed artificial intelligence to analyze nearly 460,000 medical records of patients to understand the lasting effects of COVID-19.

(UPDATED June 2, 2026 08:25 UTC)

A recent study published in JAMA Network Open, led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, estimates that approximately one in six people infected with SARS-CoV-2 develop long COVID, affecting around 15 million Americans. The analysis, which examined health records from nearly 460,000 COVID-19 patients across various regions, revealed that 89.3% of long-COVID patients developed at least one chronic condition requiring ongoing management, while many others remain undiagnosed. Senior author Hossein Estiri emphasized that the healthcare system often struggles to connect lingering symptoms back to COVID, contributing to this underdiagnosis.