This article is republished from The Sick Times. Read The Sick Times’ story and live coverage of the Senate hearing.
Several U.S. senators called for better oversight of the National Institutes of Health at a Senate health committee hearing Thursday, pointing to criticism of the agency’s RECOVER initiative — the largest recipient of federal Long Covid funding so far.
As MuckRock and STAT News reported last year, after receiving $1.15 billion in December 2020, the federal government’s RECOVER initiative has moved slowly and devoted the majority of its funding to observational research. When RECOVER finally announced its first clinical trials in the summer, scientists and advocates expressed concern that it was not testing promising treatments.
RECOVER has focused on “risk factors and praying about it” rather than diagnosis and treatment, said Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, during the Senate health committee hearing on Long Covid. He suggested that future funding might be better directed to other agencies, such as the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which works closely with private companies.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, and Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, both referenced issues with RECOVER, citing concerns about the slow pace of clinical trials. The NIH announced new funding for RECOVER trials at the end of 2023 but has yet to share details about how this additional $200 million will be used.
Responding to the senators’ comments, Ziyad Al-Aly, a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University and the St. Louis Veterans Affairs’ health system, suggested that, rather than directing future Long Covid funding away from the NIH, Congress should support a more coordinated and collaborative approach to research.
This research currently has no “quarterback,” leading to disorganized and redundant work, he said. The NIH should set up a new institute focused on infection-associated diseases, with funding on the level of “$1 billion a year in perpetuity,” Al-Aly suggested.
