More than two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, the country is still averaging more than 85,000 new Covid cases daily. That’s not nearly as high as the numbers we saw last year, but earlier this week, the US Food and Drug Administration authorized new COVID booster shots that target the omicron BA.5 subvariant. The boosters will be available as soon as the Centers for Disease Control approves guidelines on who should get the shot, and the rollout could begin as soon as next week. 

New data from the Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey (HPS) from this summer, found that about 16 million people—around 8 percent—of working-age Americans have long Covid today. Symptoms like brain fog, trouble breathing, fatigue – and the list goes on – makes it hard for some folks to return to work. But a new study from the Brookings Institution estimates that between 2 and 4 million people are out of work because of long Covid, and these absent workers are having an effect on the labor market and economy. We spoke with Katie Bach, Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of the study.