Angeles, Mary Rose, Dinh, Thi Thu Ngan, Zhao, Ting et al. · The Medical journal of Australia · 2024 · DOI
This Australian study looked at how many people have long COVID and how much it costs the economy. Researchers estimated that between 40,000 and 145,000 Australians were severely affected by long COVID in late 2022, costing the economy between $1.7 and $6.3 billion. The study found that tens of thousands of working-age Australians reported being unable to work due to long-term sickness, though Australia doesn't yet have good tracking systems to measure long COVID's true impact.
This study is important because it demonstrates that long COVID and ME/CFS share similar functional impacts and economic consequences, providing evidence-based cost estimates that can inform healthcare policy and resource allocation. For ME/CFS patients, the study validates that severe post-viral illnesses create substantial documented economic hardship and work disability, supporting arguments for better recognition and support services.
This study does not definitively prove long COVID's actual economic impact due to reliance on proxy estimates from ME/CFS rather than direct long COVID cost data. The wide range of estimates (e.g., $1.7–$6.3 billion) reflects significant model uncertainty. The study cannot establish causation between long COVID and observed labour market changes, only associations with timing.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Angeles, Mary Rose, Dinh, Thi Thu Ngan, Zhao, Ting, de Graaff, Barbara, & Hensher, Martin (2024). The economic burden of long COVID in Australia: more noise than signal?. The Medical journal of Australia. https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.52468
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-angeles-2024-economic-burden,
author = {Angeles, Mary Rose and Dinh, Thi Thu Ngan and Zhao, Ting and de Graaff, Barbara and Hensher, Martin},
title = {The economic burden of long COVID in Australia: more noise than signal?},
journal = {The Medical journal of Australia},
year = {2024},
doi = {10.5694/mja2.52468},
note = {PubMed: 39489519},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/angeles-2024-economic-burden},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/angeles-2024-economic-burden
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