Positioning and Advancing Clinical Pharmacists: ACCP Responds to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Long COVID Initiative

On April 9, 2024, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) issued an open letter to stakeholders calling for input on a draft legislative proposal that would address the Long COVID crisis that is negatively affecting the health of some 22 million Americans.

Senator Sanders serves as chair of the powerful Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). In January, the HELP Committee held a hearing on Long COVID that featured testimony from patients and the country’s leading Long COVID researchers to consider how the United States could advance treatments and improve the health of those living with the illness.

Among other initiatives, Senator Sanders’ bill would:

• Provide $1 billion in mandatory Long COVID funding per year for 10 years to the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Create a centralized coordinating entity for most of the Long COVID research activities at NIH
• Establish an NIH research advisory board made up of scientists, health care providers, and patients with Long COVID and other COVID-induced chronic conditions. The goal of the research advisory board would be to provide advice on research funding.
• Require NIH to establish a Long COVID database

ACCP’s response cited a 2022 paper published in the Journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy titled “A Primer on Post-COVID-19 Conditions and Implications for Clinical Pharmacists,” which explores how clinical pharmacists are essential team members in optimizing the treatment of patients experiencing a wide range of lingering symptoms collectively known as “post-COVID conditions.” Recognition of these conditions as a clinical entity represents the first step in developing a targeted plan for recovery and symptom mitigation.

Clinical pharmacists are a vital addition to the care team managing the transition-of-care process as patients are discharged from the hospital and reenter the community. Medications that may have been used for acute COVID-19 may no longer be appropriate at the time of discharge. This is an opportunity for clinical pharmacists to intervene and collaborate with other health care professionals to optimize patient care and prevent possible harm. Furthermore, patients who develop post-COVID conditions may benefit from additional therapies to mitigate their new COVID manifestations; however, these medications must be initiated mindfully, both regarding drug clearance and with respect to clinically significant interactions with other drugs or disease states. Clinical pharmacists are uniquely positioned not only to evaluate evolving post-COVID literature, but also to balance these new treatment modalities or old treatment options for new indications with existing chronic disease states.

Click here to read ACCP’s Long COVID response to Senator Sanders.