Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to leverage international cooperation to accelerate (a) biomedical research and (b) treatments for (i) ME and (ii) long covid.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is exploring opportunities with international research partners to foster research cooperation in areas of unmet need. For example, the Department of Health and Social Care has close links with the United States Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Long COVID Research and Practice. The US’ Assistant Secretary for Health has discussed long COVID with the Chief Medical Officer, and the Department of Health and Social Care has also co-hosted a series of researcher exchanges between United Kingdom and US experts.

The NIHR and Medical Research Council are committed to funding high-quality research to understand the causes, consequences, and treatment of long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, and are actively exploring next steps for research in these areas.