Netia McCray recalls how excited she was to join the federal advisory committee on long COVID in 2025.She had been diagnosed in the early days of the pandemic — and symptoms such as fatigue, heart palpitations and shortness of breath had become a frustrating but inescapable part of life.For stories on the science of healthy living, subscribe to NPR's Health newsletter.By joining this group of doctors, researchers and other experts advising on the disease, McCray, 36, had hoped to channel her years of experience as a long-COVID patient into "something that could benefit so many individuals like myself and my community," she says.
The work, she felt, could make her part of the solution for a debilitating condition that impacts millions of Americans.But McCray had only been on the committee for a few months when she received an email notice that the group was terminated, "effective immediately."McCray's advisory group is one of more than 100 science-focused federal committees that have been terminated under the second Trump administration, according to a news analysis in the journal Nature.As of March of this year, more than a quarter of the country's healthcare-related committees have been shut down, according to the advocacy group Public Citizen.As a result, McCray is one of hundreds of experts who are no longer meeting to work on some of the most intractable and urgent problems around health and science in the United States.
The losses linked to the demise of these groups are difficult to quantify, but participants and advocates say the impacts will reverberate across federal agencies for years.McCray — who runs a nonprofit helping high school students access opportunities in STEM — was joined on the committee by pediatrician Dr.
Alexandra Yonts, at Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C.Yonts, one of the few experts in the country who specializes in long COVID in children, was also eager to contribute to the advisory group.
Patients often travel ...