In the earliest days of the AIDS crisis, America ignored the problem, even though people were dropping dead by the thousands.
We’re repeating the mistake now with long COVID. Millions are suffering, but the government has largely turned its back, as new cases emerge with each passing wave.
So people are coming from all over the country this week to Washington D.C., in the footsteps of AIDS activists, to protest at the Lincoln Memorial on March 15th. They’re desperate for their stories to be heard.
No, long COVID is not an illness with a certain death sentence, as AIDS was in the early 80s. But those who are sick with long COVID today are facing years of disability in the prime of their lives. They’re trapped in a world of crippling fatigue, chronic pain, brain damage, blood clots and despair, with no approved drugs for treatment.
And yet, the National Institutes of Health recently allocated only about $129 million per year, on average, for an initiative to study Long COVID over the next four years – which is paltry compared to the billions some other diseases get yearly for clinical trials and research, that affect far fewer Americans. We had an “Operation Warp Speed” for vaccines. Why not long COVID?
Photo: Activists disrupt a Senate committee hearing on January 18, 2024. Copyright © Joshua Boaz Pribanic for Public Herald. Licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED license.