Federal reports on long Covid fall short of offering solid plans to help patients
The White House released two reports on long Covid but advocacy groups and outside experts say they fail to address the needs of patients suffering from the lasting illness.
Two highly anticipated federal reports on long Covid released Wednesday fail to address the immediate needs of patients, according to doctors and advocacy groups. They also say the reports neglected to include many of their recommendations for how to address the long Covid crisis.
The reports, produced in response to an executive order from President Joe Biden, go into great detail about all that remains unknown about long Covid that affects up to 23 million Americans, including the cause, effective treatments or even a specific definition of the illness.
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And while the reports do commit to establishing a long Covid office within the Department of Health and Human Services to answer those questions, the reports offer no details on how such an office would be funded and staffed, nor do they offer any timeline for such a setup.
Advocacy groups say that while the reports are a good start, they are woefully inadequate in addressing the very questions patients and their physicians have had for more than two years, when long Covid was first identified.
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