In the News: OMF Funded Study on COVID-19

In case you missed it, OMF & the OMF-funded study on COVID-19 and ME / CFS have recently been featured in Vox and The Washington Post.

Other news sources, such as The Atlantic & Health Affairs, have also highlighted the risk of COVID-19 causing debilitating long-term fatigue after patients recover from the acute phase of their disease, identifying the novel virus as a possible trigger for ME / CFS.

In doing so, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME / CFS), a hidden and often misunderstood illness, has been brought directly into the spotlight.

In response to this pressing concern, U.S. Congressman Jamie Raskin introduced new legislation that would expand NIH funding to address post-viral diseases, including ME / CFS in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his press release, Raskin states, “We cannot let the number of ME / CFS cases rise due to a lack of research & understanding. As we battle COVID-19, this critical legislation will help us respond to the ME / CFS hidden health crisis.”

The underlying message of the new articles & legislation is the same: We must take immediate action by driving critical research into COVID-19’s sequela so we can ascertain whether COVID-19 converts to ME / CFS, carefully studying the molecular transformation if it occurs.

OMF is proud to be supporting an effort to understand this possible transformation with a multi-year collaborative project to unlock the triggering mechanisms of ME / CFS revealed through the study of post-COVID-19 patients.

The world is now intensely focused on COVID-19 & the consequential risk of ME / CFS. OMF remains committed to using this pandemic as a window of opportunity to gain better understanding of ME / CFS so we may find treatments & a cure for millions suffering from this disease, and the many more who may develop it in the aftermath of COVID-19.