Dear Representative,             On the verge of the potential outbreak of a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) pandemic, Congress should not be playing politics. Instead, it should address the therapeutic failures that cost hundreds of thousands of Americans their lives in the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic. Failure to rectify this disastrous mistake may cost millions more lives once the H5N1 influenza-A virus finally achieves human-to human transmission. That may happen sooner than anticipated.             Although it may be intellectually or politically satisfying to debate whether the Covid-19 pandemic originated in the Wuhan Seafood Live Animal Market or was a laboratory leak, it is almost impossible to absolutely prove either case. Meanwhile that debate distracts from the more urgent questions of what avoidable policy failures led to doubling the death ...

              Long Covid is a complex, multifaceted syndrome that consists of multiple lingering, newly emerging, and delayed symptoms of Covid-19. Many symptoms are not apparent during the initial acute phase of illness and take time to develop. The scientific name of Long Covid is post-acute sequela of Covid or PASC.               The SARS-CoV-2 virus infects cells by attaching to the ACE2 receptor found on the surface of many cell types. Because ACE-2 is one of the most common cellular receptors, it allows viral entry into the cells of all organ systems, including nerve cells. That is why Covid-19 and subsequent Long Covid affect all physiological systems within the body, especially the nervous system.             At least two hundred various Long Covid symptoms have been recorded. A person has Long Covid if at least three or more s...