US Clinical Trial Launched to Assess Power of Prayer for COVID-19 Patients

(Worthy News) – A US clinical trial has been launched into whether multi-denominational prayer can help patients with COVID-19, the New York Post reports. Dr. Dhanunjaya Lakkireddy, a cardiologist at the Kansas City Heart Rhythm Institute, is leading a trial involving 1000 coronavirus patients who require intensive care because of the infection. The trial began on May 1 and is due to last four months.

According to a description given to the National Institutes of Health, the study will research “the role of remote intercessory multi-denominational prayer on clinical outcomes in COVID-19 patients.” Patients will receive “universal” prayer through Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism.

Lakkireddy told NPR: “I think if we believe in the wonders of God and the universal good of any religion, then we’ve got to combine hands and join the forces of each of these faiths together for the single cause of saving humanity from this pandemic.”

All 1000 patients will receive the standard of medical treatment offered by their healthcare providers, but 500 of them will also receive prayer. The other 500 will be a control group. The investigators will monitor how quickly patients recover, how many suffer from organ failure, how long patients stay on ventilators, and how many die. A steering committee of medical professionals will oversee the study.

“We all believe in science, and we also believe in faith,” Lakkireddy told NPR. “If there is a supernatural power, which a lot of us believe, would that power of prayer and divine intervention change the outcomes in a concerted fashion? That was our question.”

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