The research spurred by the emergence of COVID-19 promises to offer breakthroughs for years to come, and not just regarding this pandemic, according to an article in KHN.
Over the past years, medical researchers have generated more than 230,000 medical journal articles that have covered a range of areas that will be beneficial for other pursuits, according to KHN.
For example, researchers are building on the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines’ success in their efforts to create mRNA-based vaccines against a host of pathogens, including influenza, Zika, rabies, HIV, and respiratory syncytial virus, the article says.
And there’s more: “Anything that shows promise in long COVID will be immediately trialed in ME/CFS” (chronic fatigue syndrome), which has similarities with long COVID and may in fact be the same condition, Jarred Younger, director of the Neuroinflammation, Pain and Fatigue Laboratory at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, told KHN.
“This is just the start. We won’t see these dividends in their full glory for years,” Dr. Judith James, vice president of clinical affairs for the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation is reported as saying.
