Closer Look
NIH is spending $1 billion to study long Covid, but has little to show for it
Mike Reddy for STAT
It certainly seemed like good news back in 2020 when Congress dedicated $1.2 billion for NIH to understand long Covid, the sometimes-debilitating fallout millions of Americans live with after Covid infections. More than two years later, there's still no payoff. Most RECOVER studies launched across the country are observational, meaning they aren't testing treatments on patients. There's no sense of urgency, no push for further funding, no access to more dollars within NIH, and no comparison to the pace of Operation Warp Speed to develop a vaccine.
And there's little accountability, an investigation from STAT's Rachel Cohrs and MuckRock's Betsy Ladyzhets has found. NIH defended its approach and said it is planning five clinical trials of drugs (including Paxlovid) or behavioral therapies. Meanwhile, patients are waiting, all the while living with brain fog, fatigue, digestive problems, muscle weakness, or other troubling symptoms. "The NIH RECOVER study is pointless," said long Covid patient Jenn Cole, who tried to enroll in it. Read more.
public health
Americans worry about RSV while global confidence in childhood vaccines dips
Most Americans are concerned about respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, a new survey by STAT and The Harris Poll tells us, and they're particularly worried their children or older relatives might catch it. Last fall, RSV sent infants and toddlers across the U.S. to hospitals already strained by Covid-19 and flu. Two RSV vaccines are currently under FDA review. STAT's Ed Silverman has more.
Widening the lens to look at how people around the world perceive already available childhood vaccines, a new UNICEF report finds that confidence in them flagged in 52 of 55 countries during the Covid pandemic. China, India, and Mexico were the only countries where the importance of vaccines held steady or improved. While support remained strong in almost half the countries, it dropped by more than a third in the Republic of Korea, Papua New Guinea, Ghana, Senegal, and Japan after the pandemic emerged. These sentiments coincide with the largest sustained backslide in childhood immunization in 30 years.
coronavirus
CDC endorses updated Covid vaccine plan
It wasn't a formal vote, but a CDC advisory panel yesterday signaled support for FDA's plan announced Tuesday to offer an additional bivalent Covid shot to people who are 65 and older and to those who are immunocompromised. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky later signed off on the changes. People eligible because of their age can receive another mRNA bivalent shot made by Moderna or by partners Pfizer and BioNTech four months after their last one while immunocompromised people can get another one after two months.
Yesterday's discussion also endorsed simplifying the Covid vaccine schedule. Most Americans who've had one dose of bivalent vaccine aren't included in the new plan, but both FDA and CDC have indicated another shot will be authorized for this fall. That topic may come up in June when FDA meets to consider updating strains in the vaccine. STAT's Helen Branswell has more, including some encouraging data on vaccine effectiveness presented by CDC.
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