Long Covid is a ‘national crisis.’ So why are grants taking so long to get? $1.2 billion NIH effort lacks urgency and transparency, Science

https://www.science.org/content/art...l-crisis-so-why-are-grants-taking-so-long-get

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1535354236640169984

 

The problem is that if doctors and researchers think ME/LC is a fake illness (which is the case for at least 90% of doctors) they're just gonna pocket the money and stall for as long as they can. Money does not solve every problem, if people aren't motivated or don't believe in what they are doing they only thing they will look forward to is their paycheck.

 

Merged thread

Long Covid is a ‘national crisis.’ So why are grants taking so long to get?

"David Putrino, a neurophysiologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, labored through his holiday last Christmas to write a grant application for urgently needed Long Covid research. With colleagues, he hoped to tap into $1.15 billion in funding that Congress granted the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2020, as Long Covid emerged as a major public health problem. NIH had solicited grant applications in December 2021, just weeks before their January due date. The agency said it planned to issue decisions by late March.

But as of today, Putrino was still waiting to hear whether NIH will fund his effort to discover whether microclots might be a meaningful diagnostic biomarker for many types of Long Covid. “Maybe they should hire people who are dedicated to accelerating these programs,” says Putrino, who specializes in rehabilitation medicine. “[Long Covid] is a national crisis. This does not deserve to be somebody’s second or third job. What we need from the NIH right now is their full attention.”

https://www.science.org/content/art...l-crisis-so-why-are-grants-taking-so-long-get

 

Meanwhile, extramural scientists not involved in RECOVER are finding other ways to fund research, because NIH has put out few additional requests for Long Covid work. Michael VanElzakker, a neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital, was already using a rare, sophisticated brain scanner to run a battery of tests on cognitive function in people with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome when the pandemic descended. As a result, he says, “I have a whole neuroimaging pipeline that’s ripe for Long Covid people to go through.” But he’s relying on charitable donations, because “there’s not really a way to apply for [NIH] Long Covid funding per se.” He recently applied for a general NIH neuroscience grant but worries his proposal won’t fare well when “binned in with somebody who’s got a model of ALS [amyotrophic lateral sclerosis].”

 

ME/CFS has been a national/international crisis for almost 40 years, but they've never been in a hurry.