Into Darkness

Long COVID patients have been in hell since 2020. Now the distant light at the end of the tunnel - billions of dollars in future clinical studies - is being extinguished too.

Before the ink dried on the flurry of Executive Orders signed on Donald Trump’s first day (back) in office, while partygoers nursed inaugural hangovers or perhaps hadn’t even stilled the flow of celebratory champagne yet, the Washington Post reported that federal health agencies had been told to “pause” all external communications.

HHS, the FDA, the CDC, and the NIH are among the agencies implicated by the guidance.

Across town, I nursed my own pounding headache. This news wasn’t helping.

Mine wasn’t the result of too much celebration or champagne; mine was the result of my November 2023 COVID-19 infection, since which I’ve had migraines nearly every day for 14 months.