- A new review paper summarizes the vast global costs of Long COVID. Public health researcher Amit Bansal from the University of Bergen conducted an economic literature analysis and determined that Long COVID is estimated to have an average annual burden of at least $1 trillion globally each year. The paper cites an informative 2024 Nature review paper for this estimate, and notes that other estimates could place the annual number even higher. “The long-term prosperity and health of the global population are inextricably linked to effectively managing the economic burden of Long COVID,” Bansal wrote.
- A small study in Nature Communications found SARS-CoV-2 in the organs of fetuses from people who were infected with the virus while pregnant. Researchers conducted in-depth autopsies of 18 fetuses, analyzing 538 samples from 32 tissue types. They found the virus in 49 samples, including those from the heart, stomach, pancreas, intestines, thyroid, and skin. “Our observations reveal that SARS-CoV-2 can be widely distributed in fetal organs through vertical transmission,” the authors wrote. Still, with the small sample size, they concluded that further validation and long-term follow-up are needed to understand the effects of fetal infection on development in children and adults.
- The National Institutes of Health’s RECOVER-Treating Long COVID initiative released a draft of its protocol for the low-dose naltrexone (LDN) trial for people ages 6-25. The public can register to provide comments on the protocol using the RECOVER-TLC portal through Tuesday, December 9. Read more about this and RECOVER-TLC’s other trials in our story from September.
