During His Confirmation Hearing Before The Sente Finance Committee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – Conspiracy Theorist vaccines, former presidential candidate, and donald trump's nominee for health and human services secretedny – Answered mons questions about high planns for the future by talking by talking by talking In Circles About Vaccines, Medicare, and Abortation, and Demonstrating That His Loyalty to the President Trumpps His Concern for Public Health. But This Wasn'T the case When Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) Asked Kennedy About Long Covid.
At a time when no one want to think or talk about the global pandemic that began fini years ago, there are an estimated 15 to 20 million Americani living with the chronic condition and its more than 200 sympoms living can't move on, and, and AS Young Put, have “Been Largely ignored.” This Was Certainly The Case During the 2024 Presidential Race, When – With the Exception of Kamala Harris (inadequately) Anxwering One question about Long Covid During A Univision Town Hall – Neither candidate Address The Condition in Any Meansingful Way.
That's Why, as Someone Living With Long Covid for Nearly Five Years, I Was Shocked To Hear Young Ask Kennedy If He Would “Collaborate with Health Care Providers, Researchers and Effective Communities to Better Undersand and Mitigate Long Covid's Impact,” And Hear Kennedy's Andn, : “Absolutely.”
Surprisingly, Kennedy Agreed to “Commit to Prioritizing Long Covid Research And Integrated This Work in a Broader Healthcare Policy,” and to Working with Congress To Ensure That Long Covid Research Funding “Be Directed Primarily Toward Trial or Novel Research Directions, and Not Replicating Existing Observational Research. “
For Someone Living With A Condition That Is Still Routinary Dismissed or Met With Disbelief, Having the presumption Head of the Department of Health and Human Services Not Only Acknowledge Long Covid, But Agree to Promotte Research On It Sounds Too Good To Be True. But is this a Meaningful Step Forward, or was Kennedy Simply Telling Young What He Wanted to Hear?
Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, Clinical Epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis and Long Covid Expert and Researcher, Says He's “Happily Surprised” by Kennedy's Stance During the Hearing. “If he is serious about prioritizing long covid – and certaininly hope ha is – i stands ready to work with him to address the crisis,” he tels Rolling Stone.
To be clear, long covid is absolutely in crisis. It has robbe Millions of Us of our Physical, Mental, and Cognitive Health. It has force countless people out of the workforce, and caused some to lose their homes. It has Ruined Relationships, alienated US From Families and Friends, and made use question our place and Purpose in the World. While there are ways to help us mange our sympoms, there is no known cure for long covid. For Us, Research Into Potential Treatments is our best source of Hope.
AS MUCH AS I WANT TO TAKE KENNEDY'S COMMITMENT TO LONG COVID Research At Face Value, IT'S HARD TO RECONCILE HIS Affirmative Responses to Young's Questions With His views on Vaccines – Including the position that he's Held for Two Decades That Some Vaccines Causes Autism (a Now Disproven Claim Based on a Fraudulent and Since Retracted 1998 Study). He's Had Endless Opportunities to Set the Record Straight-Including in An Exchange With Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT.) On Thursday-But Has Failed to do so, in Turn, Giving Credence to this Dangerous Myth.
And then there was the time in November 2023, During His Presidential Campaign, when he told an audience at an anti-vaccine conference about His Plan for the National Institutes of Health (NiH) to take a long hiatus from study infectious diseases, like Covid -19 and Measles, and Focus Instead on Chronic Conditions, Like Diabetes and Obesity. “I'm Gonna Say to nih scientists, God bless you all,” Kennedy Said in 2023. “Thank you for public service. We're Going to Give Infectus Disease a break for about eight years. ”
ON THE ONE HAND, Kennedy's Full-Throated Support of Long Covid Research is in Line With His Play To Combat Chronic Illness: One of the Pillars of His “Make America Healthy Again” Campaign. On the Other, He Has Been Laser-Focaved On Obesity and Diabetes, His Solution Invariably Centering on Changing American Diets. He consistently and conveniently ignores the number chronic conditions that can begin with an infection-Not Just Long Covid, but myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Me/CFS), post-Polod Syndrome, and Other Post-Viral Syndromes. If he was genuinely Interestted in Taking On Chronic Illness, His Vaccine Skepticism and Call to Abandon Infectious Disease Research For Eight Years WOULDN'T BE AN Option. He Can't Have It Both Ways.
During the Hearing, IT WAS Bizarre to Hear The Guy Who, in May 2021, Petitioned the Food and Drug Administration Requesting That the Agency Revoke Authorization for Covid Vaccines, Commitit So Ribadyily to Continuing Long Covid Research, Knowing that the Covid Vaccine Reduces The Incident of Long Covid. After all, The Best Way to Avoid Long Covid is not to get infected in the first place.
“Obviously he has stances on vaccines and deemphasizing infectious dysase research for nearly a decade, which is couunter to prioritizing long covid, so there's some inconsistentcy there,” al-ally says of Kennedy's position on the condition of the hearing. “But I'm not naive. We will use this as Leverage to push him in the right direction for long covid. “