More than 3,500 American deaths have been attributed, at least in part, to long Covid, according to new data from the CDC, POLITICO’s Krista Mahr reported this week. The agency’s findings “underscore the potential severity of a condition that continues to impact millions but is still poorly understood and — in some cases — dismissed entirely,” Krista wrote. The CDC report is based on a review of death certificates from January 2020 to June 2022 that listed Covid-19 as a cause of death and cited such terms as “chronic Covid” or “long haul Covid.” The report also found that the vast majority — or 78.5 percent — of the deaths attributed to long Covid were among white people. Black people accounted for just over 10 percent of long Covid deaths and Hispanic people accounted for 7.8 percent, despite both groups having higher rates of Covid-19 infection and death than the white population over the pandemic’s course. Doctors treating people with long Covid told Krista the data doesn’t mean white people are more prone to long Covid, but instead, the rates suggest “it remains prohibitively difficult for patients to get treatment for the condition” because of “low levels of awareness among doctors and patients, lack of funding for specialized clinics and the time-consuming process of getting diagnosed and treated for a condition that has dozens of symptoms.” The doctors said white people are disproportionately able to navigate that thicket. But the condition remains underdiagnosed, according to Alba Azola, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Post-Acute Covid-19 Team, who said many of her patients were first told by other doctors that “they are just anxious.” ANOTHER LOSS FOR PHRMA: Drugmaker AbbVie is withdrawing from PhRMA, the leading industry group, as well as the Biotechnology Innovation Organization and the Business Roundtable, POLITICO’s Megan R. Wilson reported. The decision comes as regulators begin to implement the drug-pricing provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act that drugmakers spent millions lobbying to defeat. With the passage of the bill, which allows Medicare to negotiate certain drug prices, the industry and its advocacy groups were handed the most significant legislative loss in decades. AbbVie declined to say why it’s leaving the groups. SPOOKS’ COVID MISS: Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee reported Thursday that U.S. intelligence operatives added little to the early pandemic response, “analyzing data about the virus that was already being discussed openly by public health officials,” POLITICO’s Erin Banco reported. U.S. agents “took too long to pivot their exquisite collection capabilities to meet senior officials’ needs to know more about the crisis,” the report said. Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee released a different report Thursday, focusing on how the intelligence community handled the question of Covid’s origins. It accused the intelligence community of failing to adequately address whether there’s a link between Covid-19 and China’s biological weapons efforts.
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