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When the National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched a $1 billion dollar research effort in 2021 focused on long COVID, hopes were high that it would lead to some answers for the mysterious riddle of the complex condition. Now, more than 3 years later and with total funding of about $1.6 billion, critics contend the federal government has little to show for its efforts.

Disappointment runs high among long COVID specialists and patients, who cite poor scientific coordination, few treatments that go beyond symptom management, and a lack of clinical trials focused on pharmaceutical interventions.

Grace McComsey, MD, who leads one of the 15 nationwide long COVID centers funded by the federal Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative in Cleveland, contended that RECOVER isn't getting enough credit for what it's trying to do, and critics need to be more realistic about how long things will take. If you look at long COVID through the lens of other diseases such as HIV, it took many years and many billions of dollars to find viable treatments, she said.

Righting the ship will not be easy, but for the 17 million Americans in desperate need of treatment for long COVID, there's no other option, said Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, a global expert on long COVID and chief of research and development at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System. Head over to Medscape to read the full story.