Sen. Todd Young Challenges HHS Over Long COVID Progress

WASHINGTON — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was on Capitol Hill Thursday, taking questions from the Senate Finance Committee about the Biden administration’s health care priorities. Much of the focus was on long COVID.

Indiana Senator Todd Young pointed out that about 20 million Americans are affected, with worldwide numbers in the hundreds of millions. He said the condition is keeping people out of work and costing the global economy more than a trillion dollars each year.

“One of the real barriers to that is making sure we’re able to launch more clinical trials,” Young said. “I want to get your update on how the clinical trials are going and what plans you might have to increase them.”

Kennedy admitted the early response wasn’t strong and announced a new plan: a national Long COVID Consortium.

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“We’re launching a Long COVID Consortium—bringing together the best doctors in the country who’ve built reputations for successfully treating this condition,” Kennedy said. “One of them is Dr. Bruce Patterson, another is Dr. Jordan Vaughn, and there are others, many from Florida, who are doing spectacular things. Patients are reporting extraordinary progress.”

He argued that the current research model is too slow. “If we assume, conservatively, that it takes 12 to 15 years to develop acceptable therapeutics for long COVID, and then another 18 years for them to reach clinical practice, people my age—and yours—will have passed before they get help. We need to accelerate this.”

Young agreed and asked Kennedy what steps he would take. Kennedy responded that drug companies have been standing in the way of trials.

“It’s bizarre what’s happening,” Kennedy said. “Some of these companies, with one good student exception, are serving as barriers to clinical trials. HHS will be cracking down on this.”

He said the department will push to expand access to already-approved drugs that show promise and promote trials led by front-line doctors who are already treating patients.

The hearing was Kennedy’s first major appearance before Congress since last week’s firing of the CDC director, though senators kept the focus on long COVID.