Michael Bryand, 35, first got Covid in September 2020. “I never really got better,” he said in a sit-down interview with CNBC.
“I had symptoms that stayed with me and that are still with me.”
Bryand, who was working at Wells Fargo in San Antonio at the time, went on short-term disability and then long-term disability but was later denied Social Security Disability Insurance, or SSDI.
Although the Biden administration is looking at ending the public health emergency over the next few months, many who get sick but survive Covid suffer from enduring health problems, studies show. And currently, as many as 23 million Americans have what’s considered long Covid, according to recent estimates from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As many as 4 million people are likely out of work due to the illness, a separate report from the Brookings Institution found.
