Policy Engagement
The Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR) submitted comments in response to the recently released NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for COVID-19 Research. SWHR applauds the NIH’s efforts in developing this plan, which will act as a living document to reflect the ongoing battle against COVID-19.
SWHR strongly supports the NIH’s goal to rapidly mobilize diverse stakeholders, including the biomedical research community, industry, and philanthropic organizations, through new programs and existing resources, to lead a swift, coordinated research response to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic. The five key priorities identified in the plan – improving fundamental knowledge of the disease, advancing detection and diagnosis, advancing treatment, improving prevention, and preventing and redressing poor outcomes in disparity populations – will be critical to achieving NIH’s goal.
SWHR offered specific recommendations to strengthen the plan’s consideration of sex and gender needs in relation to the pandemic and to pandemic response: