NIH launches national initiative to study long-term effects of COVID-19

The National Institutes of Health today awarded about $470 million from the American Rescue Plan Act to New York University Langone Health for a project to study the long-term effects of COVID-19. The RECOVER (Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery) initiative will work with more than 100 researchers to support new and existing studies of COVID-19 survivors to learn why some people have prolonged symptoms or develop new or returning symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 infection, and potential prevention and treatment strategies. The studies will enroll adult, pregnant and pediatric patients during the acute and post-acute phases of infection; evaluate tissue pathology and electronic health records; and use smartphone apps and other mobile technologies to gather data in real time. 

“Given the range of symptoms that have been reported, intensive research using all available tools is necessary to understand what happens to stall recovery from this terrible virus,” said Walter Koroshetz, M.D., director of NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and co-chair of the initiative. “Importantly, the tissue pathology studies in RECOVER will enable in depth studies of the virus’s effects on all body systems.”