Long COVID may affect 18 million Americans, doubling surveillance estimates

The true toll of long COVID may be double that of current estimates and hidden from current surveillance systems that rely on capturing diagnostic codes, according to new research led by Mass General Brigham. Investigators have used a novel AI algorithm to comb through medical records of nearly 460,000 patients with COVID-19 across 58 U.S. hospitals, finding that approximately one in six (roughly 16%) developed long COVID.