- The German government is cutting millions of euros in Long COVID funding, according to the German business newspaper Handelsblatt. Last year, the country allocated around 150 million euros for Long COVID research, but a new 2026 budget puts forward a mere 16 million euros for funding for the disease, despite reports showing Long COVID and ME cost the German economy as much as 63 billion euros in 2024.
- A large electronic cohort study from Sweden found that 1.4% of people with a documented COVID-19 case were officially diagnosed with Long COVID by medical providers. The study, published in Communications Medicine, included health records from over 810,000 participants and found numerous risk factors for Long COVID, including that healthcare workers were more likely to be diagnosed, and that multiple members of the same family or same living space might have Long COVID. Note: the study’s limitations of official diagnoses (and required COVID-19 positive tests) likely significantly undercounts the true prevalence of the disease, showing the many gaps between clinical diagnoses and prevalence.
- Lidia Morawska, an Australian scientist who alerted the world that SARS-CoV-2 was airborne early in the pandemic, was recently recognized for her work with a prestigious science prize for “pioneering research about the air we breathe.” Morawska gathered 240 experts in March 2020 to challenge the World Health Organization’s false claim that the virus wasn’t airborne, which led to some public health organizations updating their guidelines. “If we operate individually, it’s very easy to reject us,” Morawska said to The Guardian. “But eventually, the voice of a large scientific body, which can be respected, hopefully will make a difference.”
