Long COVID: Exclusive NIH documents show how $1.6 billion long Covid initiative has failed so far to meet its goals

NIH documents show how $1.6 billion long Covid initiative has failed so far to meet its goals NIH documents show how the $1.6 billion long Covid initiative called RECOVER has failed so far to meet its goals. Laura Chang STAT

NIH documents show how $1.6 billion long Covid initiative has failed so far to meet its goals NIH documents show how the $1.6 billion long Covid initiative called RECOVER has failed so far to meet its goals. Laura Chang STAT

More than three years ago, the National Institutes of Health launched a $1 billion-plus initiative to find the root causes and potential treatments for long Covid, the chronic disease that has quickly changed the lives of millions of Americans.

But a lack of visible progress from the initiative, called RECOVER, has drawn months of criticism from patient advocates, researchers, and lawmakers, including at a Senate hearing last week on the NIH’s budget. ...

As the NIH assembled RECOVER, it selected three core institutions to lead most of the research: New York University, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the North Carolina-based nonprofit Research Triangle Institute. Now, budget and other project documents obtained by The Sick Times, MuckRock and STAT through the Freedom of Information Act show how decisions made early in this process likely contributed to RECOVER’s slow start.

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