Doctors, academic experts and patient advocates with long Covid have repeatedly laid out a series of demands for Congress to address the mounting crisis from several angles
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The Biden administration this week announced the creation of a new office within the Health Department focusing on long Covid — led by Assistant Secretary Rachel Levine — and a National Research Action Plan on Long COVID that will focus on “advancing prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and provision of services.” But without funding from Capitol Hill, it’s unclear how these efforts will be staffed and sustained.

And with Congress set to break in the coming weeks for a lengthy recess, senior Republicans told POLITICO the issue is not at the top of their to-do list.

“I’m not engaged in those discussions and I’m not taking a position on those discussions,” said Mike Crapo (R-Idaho.), the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

“I have other priorities. We’re handling all we can right now,” Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) said, adding that long Covid is “not that well defined” and arguing that “there’s no way to determine how many people are affected.”

Other Republicans went further, saying they oppose setting up the kind of programs to support people with long Covid that advocates and experts call for.

“Nobody can even diagnose long Covid,” Burr told POLITICO, suggesting that any financial aid program for the chronic disease would be ripe for fraud.

“I’m sure they wouldn’t cheat on that, would they?” he said sarcastically. “So I wouldn’t know how you would apply.”

At the recent House hearing where Green was the sole representative of his party, he argued that long Covid is “not an appropriate justification for an extension of the public health emergency” and called for unwinding what remains of the government’s efforts to combat Covid-19.

“Covid is now endemic and we need to treat it as such. Much of America has long since accepted that reality,” he said. “It’s time for the nation to return to normal.”

Long Covid advocates who have tried for months to recruit Republicans to their cause say they’ve run into a similar mix of disinterest and opposition. That’s raising fears in the community that with the GOP predicted to win back control of one or more chambers of Congress in November, the window for action is rapidly closing.

“It’s been silence — crickets. We’ve not gotten any response from any Republican,” Bischof said. “There’s a concern that there’s a hard partisan line forming, and we’re not going to get anything for the rest of our lives.”

In the face of this opposition, Kaine keeps plugging away with both Republicans and his own Democratic leadership and insists a breakthrough remains possible.

Then again, he acknowledged with a wry laugh, “I’m overly optimistic about everything, and I continually get cold water thrown in my face.”