Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42163969›Full record

ReviewEClinicalMedicine2026

The next phase in Long COVID research: addressing the ethical challenges in trials of disease-modifying treatments.

Saskia Hendriks, Christine Grady, Megan L Fitzgerald, Rachel S Gross, Christine Maughan, Michael J Peluso, Sumeeta Varma, Avindra Nath, Annette Rid

Abstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in EClinicalMedicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Saskia HendriksDepartment of Bioethics, Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Christine GradyDepartment of Bioethics, Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Megan L FitzgeraldBrain Inflammation Collaborative, Inc., Delafield, WI, USA.
Rachel S GrossDivision of General Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, Department of Population Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, USA.
Christine MaughanUtah Covid-19 Long Haulers, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
Michael J PelusoDivision of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Sumeeta VarmaIndependent Scholar.
Avindra NathSection of Infections of the Nervous System, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Annette RidDepartment of Bioethics, Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Almost five years after COVID-19 emerged, multiple scientific uncertainties remain about why some people experience ongoing symptoms long after being infected with SARS-CoV-2 (Long COVID). The pathophysiology underlying Long COVID and its potential to represent several endotypes are still under investigation. These scientific uncertainties around Long COVID have been cited as a reason to delay treatment trials until the disease is better understood. In this paper, a group of bioethicists, clinician-scientists and people with lived experience with Long COVID argue that it is ethically imperative to conduct trials of disease-modifying treatments for Long COVID now. Furthermore, we argue that although conducting such trials can pose ethical challenges, these challenges can be overcome through careful research priority-setting, rigorous trial design, fair participant selection, and ensuring that the risk-benefit profile is favorable.

Indexed as

Clinical trialsEthicsLong COVIDPost-acute COVID-19 syndromeResearchResearch ethicsTreatment

Identifiers

PMID42163969
PMCPMC13185860

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.