‘Underwhelming’: NIH trials fail to test meaningful long Covid treatments — after 2.5 years and $1 billion
The NIH says it’s used up most of its $1.15 billion of long Covid funding and more money is not forthcoming, per new budget details.
More than 2.5 years after the National Institutes of Health received a $1 billion mandate from Congress to study and treat long Covid, the agency has finally launched clinical trials for the often-debilitating condition. But both scientists who study long Covid and patients who have struggled with it say the trials are unlikely to deliver meaningful treatments, suggesting the federal government’s landmark Covid research effort may have been wasted.
Millions of Americans have suffered symptoms ranging from debilitating fatigue to heart issues, some still sick after initial coronavirus infections in the pandemic’s first wave. Congress provided the NIH with $1.15 billion to help patients in December 2020 — and the agency has now spent most of that funding, according to a detailed new budget breakdown shared with MuckRock and STAT, with the majority going towards observational research rather than clinical trials.
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