Patients With Long COVID Upset That Federal Research Has Not Discovered Any New Treatments

KFF Health News (1/22, Boden) reports, “Despite long COVID’s vast reach, the federal government’s investment in researching the disease – to the tune of $1.15 billion as of December – has so far failed to bring any new treatments to market.” According to KFF Health News, “this disappoints and angers the patient community, who say the National Institutes of Health should focus on ways to stop their suffering instead of simply trying to understand why they’re suffering.” Some physicians “and researchers are also critical of the agency’s research initiative, called RECOVER, or Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery.” With a lack of “clinical trials, physicians specializing in treating long COVID must rely on hunches to guide their clinical decisions, said Ziyad Al-Aly, chief of research and development with the VA St Louis Healthcare System.”