Long-term Covid patients drop out of Stanford Medicine study of infection after staff stop wearing masks

Long-term COVID patients enrolled in a study at Stanford University have walked out because staff did not wear masks while caring for them.

The participants took part in a clinical trial to see if the drug Paxlovid works to reduce the symptoms of long-term COVID.

In the course of the 15-week studyparticipants were expected to visit the clinic in person five times, but after the masking requirements were dropped, several participants said the researchers stopped covering their faces.

The strikes were first mentioned on April 28 in a Reddit post on a forum for people suffering from long-term COVID.

The lead investigators on the Stanford Medicine study, Clinical Assistant Professor Linda Geng (left) and Infectious Disease Professor, Upinder Singh (right), did not comment on the strikes, but a Stanford Medicine spokesperson said “wearing masks in all clinical settings is no longer obligatory’

“We’ve traveled hundreds of miles for months trying to participate in their research and provide THEM with data on the disease, and here’s what they think of us,” the Reddit user, whose wife participated in the study, wrote. according to the Daily Beast.

“It’s downright abhorrent, selfish behavior, and not only does it show a total lack of regard and understanding for the disease in question, in my opinion it calls into question the legitimacy of the entire study,” they added.

Masking is no longer mandated by the California Department of Public Health and Santa Clara County Public Health, where the Stanford Infectious Disease Clinic is located and where the trial was held.

The Daily Beast spoke to at least two people in the study who backed out due to the lack of masks. When published, Stanford Medicine would only confirm that one patient in the Paxlovid study withdrew over mask concerns.

“I knew mask mandates were being dropped, but I naively assumed that staff dealing with long-term COVID patients would still wear masks,” said Olivia H., a patient in the process who requested her full last name for privacy reasons. to keep, against The Daily Beest.

“I was really disappointed when the research assistant and nurse entered my room without a mask,” she added.

“I would expect all staff involved in the trial to understand that long-term COVID patients are fundamentally immunocompromised, and to take the necessary steps to prevent what little health we have left from deteriorating further,” said she.

The trial’s lead investigators, clinical assistant professor Linda Geng and infectious disease professor Upinder Singh, did not respond to requests for comment.

Vinay Prasad, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California San Francisco, wondered why participants would worry about contracting COVID if they had already contracted the virus

After study participants first started speaking out against the trial, some doctors criticized them for overreacting, including Jeffrey Bien, an oncologist at Stanford Medicine.

“Be careful or you’ll upset the super-secret ultra-double-long-Covid community,” Bien wrote on Twitter on April 30, according to the Daily Beast.

Bien responded to a tweet from Vinay Prasad, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California San Francisco.

He questioned the dissatisfied participants and wrote, “I am confused. If you already have COVID and have already developed a long covid, what does the mask do?’

Long COVID is a little-understood condition that causes some people to experience some of the symptoms of the disease long after they first got sick — months, years, and possibly longer.

The technical term for the syndrome is “post-acute sequelae of COVID,” or PASC, but doctors and researchers commonly refer to it as long COVID.

As of 2019, more than 16 million people have developed lung COVID and it is thought to affect between 5 and 30 percent of those who contract COVID-19. according to Stanford Medicine.

However, since the disease is not well understood or defined, it is difficult to quantify exactly how many people are affected with any certainty.

As of 2019, more than 16 million people have developed lung COVID and it is thought to affect between 5 and 30 percent of those who contract COVID-19. FILE PHOTO: An unwell man

Symptoms generally include chronic fatigue and exhaustion, brain fog, light sensitivity, shortness of breath, stomach problems, and palpitations.

“I was (and still am) seriously ill and was looking forward to enrolling in the trial as it would give me the opportunity to alleviate or eliminate some of my symptoms and participate in a trial where millions long-term COVID patients are hopeful about it,” Olivia H. told the Daily Beast.

“It almost seems logical to me that long COVID patients in a long COVID trial should be protected from the virus that caused their illness in the first place.”

While the two lead investigators involved in the Stanford clinical trial declined to comment, a Stanford Medicine spokesperson said in a statement: “In agreement with the California Department of Public Health and Santa Clara County Public Health, mask wearing is legal in all clinical environments no longer mandatory, but recommended.

“We continue to recommend and support masks and make masks available to healthcare professionals, patients and visitors to our healthcare facilities.”