In June, Trump Admin Ended Funding for New Lung Treatments DURING COVID Pandemic

The Trump administration has gone from willful ignorance, to indifference, to intentionally undermining testing, containment and treatment.

The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, a federal health agency, abruptly notified companies and researchers that it was halting funding for treatments for this severe form of Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.

The change in policy was posted without fanfare June 3 on a government website, and was not announced in a statement. 

 

The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, an arm of the Department of Health and Human Services, is tasked with administering money to companies developing treatments, tests and vaccines for public health threats.

Vaccines and therapeutics are BOTH ESSENTIAL.  This action is unthinkable.

Vaccines are universally considered the world’s best hope for stopping the virus, but scientists and doctors treating patients hospitalized with Covid-19 caution that there is no guarantee a vaccine will be ready by the end of the year, as Trump has promised. 

... the administration is backing away from the relatively modest funding it has provided so far for treatments that address the severe lung ailments...

When the coronavirus kills, it attacks the lungs, filling them with fluid and robbing the body of oxygen. In chest X-rays, clear lungs turn white, a sign of how dangerously sick patients are.

Trump and Republicans are screwing us again. This is simply stunning.  

The decision to suspend investment in lung treatments blindsided academic researchers and executives at small biotech companies, who said they spent months pitching their proposals to BARDA....

Even if a vaccine is approved... people will still get sick from the virus because not everyone will get vaccinated, or the effectiveness of a vaccine may wane in months, or it may not work in older people or those with compromised immune systems.

“It seems that BARDA is shutting the door on that whole area of medicine,” said Dr. Joanne Kurtzberg, a stem cell researcher at Duke University.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/health/coronavirus-lung-treatment-funding.html