NIH to bolster RECOVER Long COVID research efforts through infusion of $515 million

[SWAlexander]

Excerpt:
Four years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, Long COVID remains an unsolved, complex and urgent healthcare crisis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 9 adults in the United States who have ever had COVID-19 continue to experience Long COVID with a wide range of symptoms. Many symptoms are debilitating, affecting patients’ ability to work and go to school. To bolster Long COVID research efforts, NIH is investing an additional $515 million over the next four years into the Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative(link is external), a nationwide research program to fully understand, diagnose and treat Long COVID. Launched in 2021 with $1.15 billion in Congressional appropriations, the RECOVER Initiative is taking a systematic, comprehensive and rigorous approach to improve our understanding of Long COVID and increase the odds of identifying treatments that work.

Infection-associated chronic conditions, such as Long COVID, have been notoriously difficult to solve. Despite years of research, the underlying biological mechanisms for conditions such as myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome and a host of other infection-associated chronic conditions have not been identified, and many symptoms of these conditions remain difficult to treat. However, unlike some infection-associated chronic conditions for which the source of infection is unknown, we know that Long COVID is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which may prove advantageous in research.
continue: https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/who-w...research-efforts-through-infusion-515-million

 

[hapl808]

This is completely untenable - both because the amount is a pittance, and because it's a one-time appropriation.

HIV gets around $3b every single year - still today. It doesn't have to be decided on every year, therefore physicians will go into the field because they know grant money is flowing.

So this is another one-time payment of $515m over four years - or approximately 130m a year. HIV gets 20 times as much, and will for many more years.

 

[geraldt52]

HIV gets 20 times as much, and will for many more years.

It would seem for perpetuity. For a disease for which we've known the exact cause for decades, for which there have been many effective treatments for decades, and which is probably 95%+ preventable in the developed world...

 

[BrightCandle]

This underfunding is going to be one of the gravest errors of the 21st century. As far as I can tell there seems to be no limit on who can get Long Covid and its certainly as much as 40% of the population since its already there from the Canada data for people with 3 infections. Another 3 years of this and ME/CFS is going to be one of the most prominent diseases on the planet, its gone from a relatively obscure 1 in 300, not rare but still mostly ignored and ignorable to 1 in 4 and each of those is going to be getting worse with each extra SARs infection. Roll that process forward another 3 years and it will be 1 in 2.The idea that this can just get thrown table scraps of funding is really ridiculously dumb and short sighted. There wont be anyone left to be looking into the disease if this continues.

 

[hapl808]

Another 3 years of this and ME/CFS is going to be one of the most prominent diseases on the planet, its gone from a relatively obscure 1 in 300, not rare but still mostly ignored and ignorable to 1 in 4 and each of those is going to be getting worse with each extra SARs infection. Roll that process forward another 3 years and it will be 1 in 2.The idea that this can just get thrown table scraps of funding is really ridiculously dumb and short sighted. There wont be anyone left to be looking into the disease if this continues.

Sadly my prediction is we'll just accept new lower baselines. I've already seen it - people on TikTok talking about how, "OMG, I'm so tired. I guess this is what being in my 30's is like." No, it's not. That should be close to your physical peak if you've taken care of yourself.

I accepted my ill health from 25 onward because I had no choice. The rest of the world will be coming to meet me, rather than vice versa. Life expectancy will go down or stagnate, despite technological and safety advances. That will hide things. If we would've gotten 5 more years over the next decade, but instead lose another 5 years - it will set public health back 50+ years, but we just will hide the data.

People will accept almost anything, and I think they'll have a chance to do just that.

 

[SWAlexander]

The research announcement serves merely as a pacifier to quiet the steadily rising voices.

This keeps me wondering if they already know the cause and are trying to hide it.

 

[Marylib]

Conclusion: "Gee some of you guys must have some really wonky immune systems. Too bad we don't have anything to kill the damn virus before it latches onto your vagus nerve..."

 

[hapl808]

The research announcement serves merely as a pacifier to quiet the steadily rising voices.

That's what I feel like. These small one-off gifts are designed to shut people up, not to move science forward.

 

[Marylib]

It's so sad - the whole situation. I read today that one of my favorite actresses - Tilda Swinton - is suffering from Long Covid. Hopefully she will recover on her own. If there is anything the ME community has contributed to those with Long Covid it is something simple - like 'don't push yourself.'
https://www.theguardian.com/film/20...about-having-a-house-by-the-sea-and-some-dogs

 

[Rufous McKinney]

Hopefully she will recover on her own.

oh: I found the one sentence that came up in, I had to use the FIND tool.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

If there is anything the ME community has contributed to those with Long Covid it is something simple - like 'don't push yourself.'

she says "I have to work my brain"

so much for The Warnings Getting Through

 

[Rufous McKinney]

If there is anything the ME community has contributed to those with Long Covid it is something simple - like 'don't push yourself.'

Sorry this is just bugging me. Affluent well informed people with access to every possible medical intervention, high level doctors, what have you, don't even know WHAT they are dealing with?

 

[Marylib]

@Rufous McKinney ... I guess I think back to the days when I myself had no idea what I was dealing with and trying to 'live as usual'..I didn't have affluence on my side, but in those long ago days I could still think - at least a little...these days any 'thinking' I might do is a sham...and that's not the half of it...'brain fog' is as ridiculous a term as 'chronic fatigue.' Sorry, I guess I went off-topic. Anyway - I guess I cannot expect anyone to be well-informed when it comes to this shite. It's difficult to fully understand anything when one hasn't experience it, at least in my own experience of life.