
And before we rush in and waste a lot of resources with bad trials, we need to understand what we’re studying. Daniel Griffin, an infectious disease specialist at Columbia University. We’re all impatient to have evidence-based therapeutic recommendations,” said Dr. “I know that we’re all impatient to get answers. Gary Gibbons, director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.ĭoctors who treat people with long Covid but who were not involved in the study said they were pleased to see the new criteria. The adult cohort “is going to be the largest, most diverse cohort of long Covid patients that are deeply characterized in the world,” said Dr. Still, NIH organizers have defended their decision to invest in this definition, which they say is essential to finding effective treatments. Instead, they say, the focus has been on observational studies like this one, which are attempting to characterize a problem that they feel has already been well-defined – by decades of research on post-viral illnesses. Many of these patients have been disheartened by what they see as a lack of urgency on the federal government’s part as deadlines for starting clinical trials to test potential treatments have slipped. With its massive budget and scope, the RECOVER initiative has been a great hope of people with long Covid, some of whom are too ill to leave a bed or a chair for long.Ĭensus data suggests that 15% of US adults experienced new or lasting symptoms months after their initial infections, a phenomenon scientists have dubbed postacute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection, or PASC. More than 200 symptoms have been reported by people with PASC or long Covid. The cohort, one of five arms of RECOVER, was launched in September 2021, with an award of nearly half a billion dollars – a sizeable chunk of the entire RECOVER budget – going to New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine. Sleep apnea raises risk of long Covid by up to 75% for some, study says
