On Wednesday, the Biden-Harris administration announced the creation of a new office focused on Long Covid within the Department of Health and Human Services. It’s a critical step towards legitimizing the lasting, sometimes debilitating effects of the post-viral illness — something that’s been conspicuously absent from public health messaging on the virus.

The White House and HHS outlined the functions and goals of this office, along with other strategies for dealing with the condition, in two reports released today: National Research Action Plan on Long Covid and the Services and Supports for Longer-Term Impacts of Covid-19 report. HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine, MD will lead the newly created office, and is tasked with implementing both reports.

At this stage, it’s difficult to know how many people are currently living with the post-viral illness, but HHS estimates indicate that between 7.7 and 23 million Americans have developed Long Covid. Of those, roughly one million people may be out of the workforce at any given time as a result of the condition, which the department notes is equivalent to about $50 billion in lost earnings each year.”