cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/22652063

The gravity of the approaching long Covid pandemic was accurately forecast as early as 2021. Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that more than 3 million U.S. adults have long Covid with significant limitations in daily activities, and more than 16 million have had the condition. A Brookings study found that long Covid has kept between 2 and 4 million full-time equivalent workers out of the workforce. The mainstream media has regularly featured disheartening stories of the biomedical establishment and society-at-large turning its back to the plight of sufferers and the widespread disillusionment this has caused.

In December 2020, the U.S. government’s involvement in addressing the pandemic of long Covid officially began when Congress allocated $1.15 billion to the National Institutes of Health for research into the lasting health consequences of Covid-19. For people suffering from long Covid, the move offered hope.

Just over four years later, on Feb. 19, President Trump disbanded the Health and Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Long COVID, as part of an executive order titled “Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy.” After the Biden administration’s tepid involvement and fitful progress in long Covid policy and practice, this decision may signal the end of meaningful federal involvement in mitigating the plight of millions of long Covid sufferers.