HHS’ long covid office is closed. What does this mean for future research and treatment?
The long Office for Covid’s Research and Practice has helped coordinate US government initiatives to treat, diagnose and prevent the mystical postviral conditions affecting millions of people today
Under an order from the Trump administration, the US Department of Health and Human Services Plan to close Long Office for Covid Research and Practice (OLC). this Government office Coordinate the efforts of the entire healthcare organization to understand and treat long covids, the mystical patient condition that affects estimates. Today, 23 million people in the US. The closure is another victim of a reorganization of various government sectors. Internal email From Ian Simon, Director of OLC.
“For the past three years, we have built meaningful connections and fruitful collaborations across the federal landscape to support this work,” Simon writes. “We hope that in some way the work we have been dedicated will continue as we are closed.”
Closures still send a disastrous message to many adults and children navigating the complex state, says Ziyad Al-Aly, a long-standing symbiotic research leader and clinical epidemiologist.
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“People have been hurt in the form of long covids due to this pandemic, and their illness is real and they need help,” says Al-Aly. “The office’s intention was to really catalyze progress and achieve efficiency. To undo that would bring it back, slow down a lot of work, and slow down a lot of progress. [it] Today, it’s the disadvantage today for more than 20 million Americans suffering from a long-term community. ”
What did the long Covid office do?
Various health agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Agency for Healthcare and Research Quality (AHRQ), began early research on Long Covid in 2020. Help these agencies coordinate Efficiently implementing a variety of long covid initiatives. These include CDC’s programs that train clinicians in timely diagnosis, prevention and treatment. The long covid care network (Initiative to provide funding and support to several existing long Covid clinics across the United States). Network clinics focus specifically on expanding care to rural, vulnerable, marginalized communities that do not provide services. The OLC supported other programs that addressed long-covid-related stigma and health disparities, including developing research criteria to include racial and ethnic groups disproportionately affected by conditions.
What does closure mean to those affected and research?
World Health Organization Estimate 6 out of 100 people Infection with the virus SARS-COV-2 that causes covid develops long covid. This includes cleaning up mild to catastrophic symptoms that can last for months or years. The mysterious extent of cause, severity, and future treatments and treatments have been areas of primary interest for OLC.
Long covid has proven to be a complicated condition, and while some treatments may help relieve symptoms, there is no treatment. But Al-Aly says a lot of progress has been made, and he points out that the firm supports hundreds of long Covid research.
People currently undergoing treatment for long covid may not see immediate results, but closure of OLCs will have a “cold effect,” says Al Ali. Groups defending people with long covids, such as the Covid-19 Longhauler Advocacy Project, reflect this sentiment and have expressed concerns about future investment and care for conditions that are often overlooked.
“This isn’t just the offices are closed. It’s about erasing tens of millions of people,” said the founder of the Longhower Advocacy Project. I wrote in a recent statement. “The office was our strongest ally. The team deeply empathized with the urgency of the crisis we live in, and understood the appeal of mission-driven. It was the first and only government agency to unite all HHS agencies, to ensure a true effort, to establish a true coordination. Ongoing, ready for launch, and the infrastructure is acting as one country.”
Other Initiatives Under Threatening
The closure of the OLC is in line with other recent moves to deprive the research efforts related to Covid and pandemic preparation.
on tuesday Science Several key researchers in research projects on antiviral drugs, covid vaccines and long covid reported learning I received a letter saying their grant was effectively ended.. In a statement Science, “We’re no longer wasting billions of taxpayer dollars in response to a nonexistent pandemic that has moved for years,” HHS said.
“It’s like saying, ‘You’ve been through an earthquake, but the earthquake is over,'” Al Ali says. “So don’t complain to me that the building is being destroyed. Don’t complain to me that you’re injured. I haven’t seen the earth shaking. It’s over.” This is how this feels to us. People who work and think about long covids and long covid patients. ”
Additionally, a former AHRQ employee recently told STAT that Grant Funding, which supports the long-term Covid Care Network, could also be at risk. The Trump administration targeted agencies and reduced staffing.
If the closure of the OLC was also intended to be a cost-cutting move, Al-Aly adds that the funds to run the office within the government’s budget should be “peanuts.” And it doesn’t compare to the long covid costs for the US economy: A 2022 preprint analysis by Harvard economists estimated these costs at $3.7 trillion..
Betsy Ladyzhets, a long-time Covid News website and co-founder of The Sick Times, reported in a government information purge that it was implemented in the wake of an executive order issued by President Donald Trump, the federal website of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Job Accommodation Network. Defeated the long Covid status as an obstacle– Resources and accommodation information.
The long Covid initiative and information rewinding is particularly confusing given the platform to tackle chronic diseases in the United States at a confirmation hearing of new secretary for health and human services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. I have been enthusiastically pledged to invest in long covid research And developing new treatments.
“I understand that there is this enthusiasm to support chronic illnesses. Al-Aly said that “The Chronic Disease Exemplar” “I want to remind RFK Jr. that he told the country at his confirmation hearing that he prioritized research on long covids. You said you wanted to prioritize long covids, you said that you help with chronic diseases and “make America healthy again.” That’s not what we’re seeing right now. ”
