1w ago

Long-Covid Patients Are Frustrated That Federal Research Hasn't Found New Treatments

kffhealthnews.org Long-Covid Patients Are Frustrated That Federal Research Hasn't Found New Treatments - KFF Health News

The federal government has allocated $1.15 billion to long-covid research without any new treatments yet brought to market. Patients and scientists say it’s time to push harder for breakthroughs.

Along with claiming the lives of 1.2 million Americans, the covid-19 pandemic has been described as a mass disabling event.

Estimates of prevalence range considerably, depending on how researchers define long covid in a given study, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts it at 17 million adults.

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.

16 comments

I wouldn't be surprised if this funding stopped. Now that the Cheeto is in power.
- It will. They’ll try to scientifically discredit it. RFK will call it “hysteria” or a “vaccine injury” or something.
  The new leader of the NIH that Trump appointed called it “long lasting sniffles” in his book. (Long COVID has caused thousands of deaths).

As someone with Long COVID myself, I’m unsure this article is approaching it from the right angle.
Treatments don’t just come easy, they take massive monetary investment and lots of time, AIDS took 2 decades of 1 billion + per year invested.
I’m more frustrated that we’ve only had a small amount invested (yes 1.15 billion sounds like a lot, but for something that has disabled about 0.5-3% of the population so much they had to stop working, it’s actually miniscule), and so we haven’t even figured out any mechanisms. (Without knowing mechanisms, finding treatments is like throwing random shit at the wall and seeing what sticks). I’m also frustrated that people in Trump’s administration are denying long COVID is a thing or blaming it on mental health.
- Sorry to hear about your long COVID :(
  Your point is spot on. It’s not even guarantee that we find a solution… you can’t just ask scientist to science faster. The problem is with lackluster investments and also expectations that everything can be fixed with enough money thrown at it :(
  
  Yep. But time and money massively increase the odds something is found.
  Given long COVID is costing about 1 trillion per year* in lost growth, I’m surprised the capitalists aren’t taking it seriously.
  *https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03173-6
- That throwing random shit at the wall really sticks with me ATM, currently trialing my 3rd expirimental med for an upcoming clinic and it's all just medication somebody received for other purposes that also seemed to have a positive effect on their longcovid symptoms.
  So far none have been satisfactory but hey we keep trying.
  
  I tried that until some treatments my doctor prescribed permanently worsened my condition.
  I don’t know why we’re in such an expirmental treatment mindset around long COVID but it certainly fucked up my health real bad.
  I’m fucking tubefed now.

Don't worry, funding will now stop completely because it's no longer necessary. Trump found that ivermectin cures it all, so we're done here!

I have enormous sympathy for those long COVID sufferers that avoided large gatherings in the beginning, wore masks when they had to go out, got vaccines and boosters when they became available, and despite doing everything experts were advising, still managed to draw the short straw. My heart goes out to them.
The ones that acted like all of the basic precautionary measures were at best inconvenient, or worse, an infringement on their god given right to spread disease.... not so much.
- I mean I was 4x vaccinated before I got it. But it’s getting a little hurtful that every single post I make about long COVID has half the comments making fun of people for not getting vaccinated.
  Like for fucks sake just take seriously the thing that ruined our lives and stop victim blaming at every corner you can.
  Most people got long COVID before the vaccines were even a thing, it’s got the highest rate among nurses, those who were working overtime during the pandemic keeping your relatives alive.
  
  Which is exactly why I go to great pains to point out that I have great sympathy for those that did everything right, and still got screwed over.
  But remember that nobody just catches COVID (or the flu, or similar diseases) in a vacuum. They got it from someone else, who got it from someone else, who got it from someone else. There's a strong probability that someone in your infection ancestry (for lack of a better term) is one of those selfish people that refused to take basic precautions, and if they had taken precautions, you would never have gotten long COVID. We'll never know who it is, but at least one person out there is probably directly to blame for your long COVID. That person deserves to be mercilessly ridiculed until long after they die.
- Thank you, on the day I was going to get my second booster I became violently ill from Covid, I was bed ridden with a very high fever for nearly 2 weeks (which wasn't easy, living alone), and ever since then (november 2022) I have limited energy.
  With some careful planning I managed to work full time again, but don't expect too much extra from me.

Remember aids? Now think about how long it took before a cure was found. (Hint: We might have gotten one just now.)

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