NC COVID experts: We still have blind spots understanding the virus. You can help. | Opinion
In May, the federal government will not renew the national public health emergency declarations that were first issued in 2020 when the rapid spread of COVID-19 required urgent mobilization of our healthcare systems. This significant milestone reflects the reduced lethality of COVID-19, thanks in large part to the swift roll-out of vaccines and therapeutics proven to be effective at preventing severe disease.
When one compares the spike in cases, hospitalizations and deaths our nation has experienced this winter with the surge suffered the winter before, it is clear we are in a different phase of this pandemic.
While our fear of COVID-19 is receding, our understanding of it is expanding.
Over the past three years, we have learned much about SARS-CoV-2 and the disease it causes. Researchers have developed a variety of medications that can forestall severe disease in those at highest risk.
Clinicians have honed their lifesaving skills based on their experience providing care for those who ended up severely ill.
On the public health front, innovations like wastewater testing for the virus have become a useful bellwether, and data from national healthcare systems in Europe and the Middle East reveal trends that public health experts use to assess how well interventions work and guide policy.
However, while our successes may make it seem we have acquired an encyclopedic knowledge of COVID-19, we very well may be only at letter A.
Our understanding of the virus contains key blind spots, and many of our most fundamental questions are still unanswered. How durable is the protection vaccines provide from severe disease? How protective is natural infection? Who would benefit most from annual boosters?
Among the greatest mysteries is long COVID, the persistence of symptoms months after initial infection. Some studies indicate that as many as 1 in 4 infected people will experience long COVID, leading to what some are terming a “mass disability.” Many possible mechanisms underpinning long COVID are being explored, but it is likely that this may be a complex collection of different problems with disparate causes grouped under one diagnosis.
To get answers about long COVID and other questions being asked as we try to learn to live with COVID-19, we have to look to research. One type of research that gets less attention than the large clinical trials of vaccines or medications, involves simply observing. By watching what happens to people over time, patterns emerge to reveal factors that influence outcomes, and which can be the focus of future interventions.
We have launched an observational study of people just diagnosed with COVID-19 in North Carolina, the VISION Study (www.visionstudy.org).
Funded by the North Carolina Collaboratory, supported by our state legislature, the study looks closely at what is happening to people with COVID-19 now and in the future to see how the virus is impacting lives. The study will follow 7,500 people for more than a year and is completed entirely online for all participants except for several hundred who volunteer for in-person visits.
So far, 900 North Carolinians have signed up for VISION — a terrific start. But as a state at the forefront of health innovations, we can do better. To provide meaningful insights, studies like VISION need participation from all who are able. Our state is diverse in many ways, and our research must be too.
We hope you don’t get COVID-19, but if you do, think about joining VISION and helping to find the answers we need so that this virus never again causes a public health emergency.
This story was originally published February 20, 2023 at 5:30 AM with the headline "NC COVID experts: We still have blind spots understanding the virus. You can help. | Opinion."