Rutgers will take the lead in a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study seeking to define long COVID – a term used to describe lingering COVID-19 symptoms – in children, including its evolution and how often it occurs. The university is recruiting 150 participants and will lead a national network of 14 sites that will recruit an additional 2,000 participants. The total NIH national recruitment goal is 20,000 participants. The study is part of a $30 million grant Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School received as part of the NIH-funded Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) initiative to lead a national collaboration to study long-term and delayed impacts of COVID-19 in children.

In the study’s first phase, participants will provide blood and saliva samples and complete an at-home questionnaire. Qualifying participants will continue to the second phase, which involves an in-depth evaluation that will include bloodwork, an electrocardiogram and lung-function testing at the Pediatric Clinical Research Center at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick. Some participants may be selected for even more in-depth study, including brain imaging, cognitive testing and echocardiograms. To read the full story.