Though Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged to tackle Long COVID during his HHS confirmation hearings, he has abandoned the plight of Long COVID patients by dismantling federal COVID prevention programs and the research infrastructure invested in researching and treating the condition. So far, RFK Jr. has fired key officials at CDC, created barriers to accessing COVID vaccines, and cut research funding for mRNA and intranasal vaccines, which showed great promise in preventing symptomatic disease.
HAYLEY BROWN; [email protected]
Brown is a research associate with the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Brown told the Institute for Public Accuracy: “Long COVID stood out as a cautiously optimistic bright spot in Secretary Kennedy’s initial hearings. He was put on the spot by Republican senators who wanted to prioritize it. There had already been a well-organized patient base that was mobilizing and self-advocating, and earlier this year they had some success in reversing funding cuts to Long COVID research. This issue is ongoing and widespread, and it affects people who are close to lawmakers. Combating Long COVID would also have been somewhat consistent with Kennedy’s promise to combat chronic disease. Long COVID isn’t a separate universe from chronic disease; it’s one of many diseases that get a jump start through infectious disease. So there was some hope that his stated commitment would include Long COVID patients.
“Unfortunately, Kennedy makes a rhetorical separation between chronic disease and infectious disease. Long COVID is not the only chronic disease that begins with infection at the root of it, and ignoring infectious disease is not an appropriate way to tackle chronic disease––and absolutely not the way to do it if you’re interested in addressing the root cause of chronic disease, as Kennedy says he is. But Kennedy’s approach to vaccines is not what you want to see from someone tackling root causes in a disease like Long COVID. Vaccines are one of the most promising things in existence to prevent new cases of Long COVID and prevent symptom exacerbation for people who already have Long COVID. Many peer-reviewed studies have shown that reinfection with COVID reduces the likelihood of recovery from Long COVID, exacerbates existing symptoms, and produces new Long COVID symptoms. But Kennedy is making it much more difficult for people to get vaccinated. The current vaccines, though not sufficient on their own to prevent disease, are a helpful tool in the toolbox. Kennedy is only making it harder by suggesting that people need to see a doctor to discuss vaccination. Going to see the doctor creates new hurdles to accessing vaccination, and is especially concerning when paired with cuts to Medicaid, which make it harder for people to see a doctor to discuss things like getting vaccinated.”
Brown also highlighted that “what they’re doing with wastewater surveillance [by implementing a technical change that degrades the quality and comparability of the data] is also a huge problem. That didn’t start under Trump. But wastewater data is a key way to track infection, because it gives us an idea of where infections are rising and acts as an early warning system.
“Not all of this is stemming from Kennedy. There is an idea that if Kennedy were gone, we wouldn’t be seeing any of these problems and Long COVID patients would be doing much better. Kennedy is overseeing HHS, but the problem isn’t limited to him. OSHA, for instance, has proposed to remove COVID emergency reporting systems for hospitals. That’s a big deal because hospitals are infection hotspots and they are where vulnerable patients go for necessary care. Removing reporting systems also puts healthcare workers at greater risk and makes it harder to track how risk is evolving. So this isn’t limited to Kennedy, though many problematic things are taking place under his leadership at HHS. At the top, these personnel firings and shakeups are also throwing things into chaos. It’s really hard to maintain operations when these shakeups are happening, both at the bottom and the top.”