TUBERCULOSIS CONTROL
| HHS Establishes Office of Long COVID Research and Practice In July, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra announced the creation of the Office of Long COVID Research and Practice. The Office is charged with ongoing federal government efforts to better understand and alleviate the serious effects of long COVID and its associated conditions. The Office will establish a new Federal Advisory Committee on Long COVID to highlight perspectives from outside the government. According to current analysis from HHS, nearly eight million Americans have been afflicted with Long COVID. The creation of this new COVID-centric Office coincides with renewed attention to the necessity of understanding the serious human health implications of long-term COVID. Jennifer Alexander-Brett, MD, a member of the ATS’s Health Policy Committee, noted, “This office will be critical to supporting health care interventions and basic research directed toward the long-term effects of COVID infection. Now, more than three years into the pandemic, we continue to accumulate evidence of post-infectious sequelae associated with disability in a substantial number of patients, as well as increased risk of mortality among hospitalized individuals. At present, the basic understanding of how and why long COVID develops and what therapies may be effective both remain elusive. The HHS initiative will provide the necessary federal organization, infrastructure, and resources to tackle these challenging questions.” |
Last Reviewed: September 2023
