NIH Awards Nearly $470 Million to Study Long-Term Effects of COVID-19

In a Sept. 15 news release, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced it awarded nearly $470 million to build a national study population of diverse research volunteers and support large-scale studies on the long-term effects of COVID-19.

The release states that “The NIH REsearching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative made the parent award to New York University (NYU) Langone Health, New York City, which will make multiple sub-awards to more than 100 researchers at more than 30 institutions and serves as the RECOVER Clinical Science Core. This major new award to NYU Langone supports new studies of COVID-19 survivors and leverages existing long-running large cohort studies with an expansion of their research focus. This combined population of research participants from new and existing cohorts, called a meta-cohort, will comprise the RECOVER Cohort. This funding was supported by the American Rescue Plan.”

NIH introduced the RECOVER Initiative to learn why some individuals have prolonged symptoms (referred to as long COVID) or develop new or returning symptoms after the acute phase of infection from the COVID-19 virus. Common symptoms include pain, headaches, fatigue, fever, chronic cough, shortness of breath, “brain fog,” depression, anxiety, and sleep problems.

NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., was quoted in the release saying that “We know some people have had their lives completely upended by the major long-term effects of COVID-19. These studies will aim to determine the cause and find much needed answers to prevent this often-debilitating condition and help those who suffer move toward recovery.”

That said, “Data from the RECOVER Cohort will include clinical information, laboratory tests, and analyses of participants in various stages of recovery following SARS-CoV-2 [the virus that causes COVID-19] infection. With immediate access to data from existing, diverse study populations, it is anticipated researchers will be able to accelerate the timeline for this important research.”

Researchers, people affected by long COVID, and representatives from advocacy organizations worked together to develop RECOVER master protocols that use standardized trial designs and research methods. These master protocols enable the uniformity of evaluation of study populations across studies and the ability to transition the research focus depending on what the findings show. This particular approach allows data harmonization across research studies and study populations and will allow data to be compared and analyzed to facilitate the research process.

Further, “Studies will include adult, pregnant, and pediatric populations; enroll patients during the acute as well as post-acute phases of the SARS-CoV-2 infection; evaluate tissue pathology; analyze data from millions of electronic health records; and use mobile health technologies, such as smartphone apps and wearable devices, which will gather real-world data in real time. Together, these studies are expected to provide insights over the coming months into many important questions including the incidence and prevalence of long-term effects from SARS-CoV-2 infection, the range of symptoms, underlying causes, risk factors, outcomes, and potential strategies for treatment and prevention.”

The release concludes that “Research opportunity announcements were issued in February 2021 and awards to launch the RECOVER Clinical Science Core and Data Resource Core were announced in June. An award in support of a RECOVER Biorepository Core has also been made to the Mayo Clinic for approximately $40 million to collect, curate, and distribute comprehensive source of clinical samples for additional research studies. The Cores provide coordination and infrastructure for the RECOVER Initiative, including supporting the activities of the investigator consortium and ensuring that all data are harmonized and shared among researchers. In May and June, short-term awards were provided to more than 30 institutions to develop the master protocols.”