Along with claiming the lives of 1.2 million Americans, the covid-19 pandemic has been described as a mass disabling event.
Estimates of prevalence range considerably, depending on how researchers define long covid in a given study, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts it at 17 million adults.
Despite long covid’s vast reach, the federal government’s investment in researching the disease — to the tune of $1.15 billion as of December — has so far failed to bring any new treatments to market.
Remember aids? Now think about how long it took before a cure was found. (Hint: We might have gotten one just now.)