Source: ChildrensHealthDefense.org
The National Institutes of Health’s efforts to study long COVID have done little to benefit those struggling with the disorder and haven’t contributed meaningful information about the condition, according to an investigation by STAT and MuckRock, a nonprofit news outlet.
Story at a glance:
- In February 2021, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that Congress would provide the agency $1.15 billion in funding over four years to study long COVID.
- An investigation by STAT and MuckRock, a nonprofit news outlet, revealed the NIH’s efforts to study long COVID have done little to benefit those struggling with the disorder and haven’t contributed meaningful information about the condition, either.
- As of April, NIH has “basically nothing to show for” its research to date.
- Instead of conducting trials to pin down how to prevent and cure long COVID, NIH has spent most of its money simply watching, tracking and recording long COVID symptoms.
- Gathering information about NIH’s long COVID data — and where the $1.15 billion in funding has gone — hasn’t proven easy; there is no single NIH official in charge of the efforts and the agency isn’t sharing even basic information about its research.
An estimated 7.5% of U.S. adults — that’s 1 in 13 — have symptoms of “long COVID,” a term used to describe a complex disorder that persists for three or more months after contracting COVID-19.
With so many affected, there’s clearly an urgent need to investigate long COVID and how to treat it — and the NIH did just that.
In February 2021, Dr. Francis Collins, NIH’s former director, announced that Congress would provide the agency $1.15 billion in funding over four years “to support research into the prolonged health consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection.”
“A diverse team of experts from across the agency has worked diligently over the past few weeks to identify the most pressing research questions and the areas of greatest opportunity to address this emerging public health priority,” he continued.
Fast forward more than two years later. What has NIH accomplished with the money?
“There’s basically nothing to show for it,” journalists Rachel Cohrs and Betsy Ladyzhets wrote in STAT.
NIH spends $1 billion, contributes nothing but ‘confusion’
An investigation by STAT and MuckRock, a nonprofit news outlet, revealed the NIH’s efforts to study long COVID have done little to benefit those struggling with the disorder and haven’t contributed meaningful information about the condition, either.
“The National Institutes of Health hasn’t signed up a single patient to test any potential treatments — despite a clear mandate from Congress to study them. And the few trials it is planning have already drawn a firestorm of criticism, especially one intervention that experts and advocates say may actually make some patients’ long Covid symptoms worse.
“Instead, the NIH spent the majority of its money on broader, observational research that won’t directly bring relief to patients. But it still hasn’t published any findings from the patients who joined that study, almost two years after it started.
“There’s no sense of urgency to do more or to speed things up, either. The agency isn’t asking Congress for any more funding for long Covid research, and STAT and MuckRock obtained documents showing the NIH refuses to use its own money to change course.”…