Bernie Sanders wants to spend $10 billion on a long Covid ‘moonshot’ operation – but experts say the situation is vastly exaggerated
Far-left Senator Bernie Sanders has proposed a huge investment in research into long-term Covid-19, a condition that many experts remain unconvinced of the major public health threat people are claiming.
Sanders, from Vermont, hopes to create a $10 billion Covid moonshot project to speed up research and create a long Covid patient database where doctors can share information with each other.
His proposal would also establish a centralized committee made up partly of actual long Covid patients to monitor research grant disbursements and the status of the research the government is funding.
The CDC said in 2022, seven percent of Americans reported having had a long Covid-19 crisis at some point, about 18 million.
But doctors have said that overly broad definitions of the condition – an umbrella term for about 200 different symptoms – have led to a vast exaggeration of the risks and its common nature, leading to many misdiagnoses.
Sen. Sanders’ proposed long Covid moonshot would allocate $1 billion over ten years to research and development of treatments. However, the proposal is still in committee and will first have to be further developed before it goes to the full house for a vote
Long Covid is a constellation of symptoms such as brain fog, fatigue, headaches, sleep problems, changes in smell or taste, neck pain, constipation, irregular heartbeat, and much more.
However, many experts have said that the long-term symptoms some patients experience after an infection are no different from those caused by other viruses, such as influenza.
A recent study found that patients hospitalized for flu were much more likely to seek medical care for certain conditions than those treated in hospital for a Covid-19 infection.
They also found that those hospitalized for flu were almost twice as likely to receive treatment for a neurological condition the following year, compared to their Covid patient counterparts.
An Australian doctor previously told DailyMail.com that the “long Covid” designation could cause unnecessary anxiety, “and in some cases hypervigilance for longer symptoms that could hinder recovery.”
Last year, scientists from the UK, US and Denmark looked at the definition of long Covid by a number of global health organisations, including the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
They found that any new symptoms arising after a confirmed or suspected Covid infection can be considered consistent with long Covid-19, resulting in more than 200 associated symptoms.
Many doctors are not convinced that Covid has long existed as a condition in itself, instead believing that various symptoms could mean a number of other diagnoses, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, lupus and even cancer.
But now millions of Americans are reporting similar symptoms weeks to months after recovering from Covid, and it’s costing $2.50 about $11,000 per person in the form of lost income and medical expenses, the federal government has long considered Covid a “crisis.”
Senator Sanders, who released a draft of his proposal this week, said: “In my opinion, it is long past time for Congress to treat Long COVID as the public health emergency that it is.
“Congress must act now to ensure a cure is found for this terrible disease that affects millions of Americans and their families.”
The proposal aims to accelerate the process of research and treatment development by accelerating the amount of time required to review, approve and distribute grant money to scientists.
In addition to a major financial boost for long-term Covid research over a decade, the moonshot would give doctors better tools to diagnose patients by creating a database of patient symptoms, which aims to improve diagnostics.
Limited evidence about the long prevalence of Covid, how it affects different organ systems, what exactly causes it and to what extent certain patients’ symptoms can be attributed to fear and anxiety about it, has made doctors hesitant to use the term.
Patients have claimed that they often had to convince doctors that their symptoms were real, describing feelings of being ‘gaslit’ by doctors who did not believe them.
Sen. Sanders said, “Far too many patients with Long COVID struggle to take their symptoms seriously. Far too many medical professionals have dismissed or misdiagnosed their health problems. That has to change.
“We cannot turn our backs on the millions of Americans who continue to suffer from Long COVID. I look forward to hearing from patients, experts and researchers about what we need to do to tackle this crisis.”
There are no specific treatments yet for long Covid-19, something Sen. Sanders hopes his moonshot initiative can change within about a year of implementation.
The proposal is still in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which Senator Sanders chairs, and will have to clear that committee before it can be voted on in the Senate, where Democrats have a razor-thin finger in the pie. . majority.