Patient advocates have called on the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to reconsider its exercise trials in its RECOVER initiative, designed to study and find treatments for long Covid, citing potential harm and funding waste. Many with long Covid have reported experiencing post-exertional malaise (PEM) and worry that exercise trials could cause harm. The RECOVER Clinical Trials Data Coordinating Center at the Duke Clinical Research Institute said that the NIH is working with patient representatives in shaping the exercise trial protocol and that investigators are meeting with those representatives to discuss concerns. Long Covid is estimated to have affected up to 23 million people in the US.
