A new North Carolina study called VISION is now underway to answer some of the biggest questions about COVID-19. Led by William Fischer, MD, principal investigator, and David Wohl, MD, co-lead, the study plans to enroll 7,500 COVID-positive individuals to understand the different factors that impact individual risk for key clinical outcomes including recovery from acute illness, symptom rebound, re-infection, and long COVID. Investigators explain the study more in video.
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Over two years into the COVID-19 pandemic and researchers still are looking to answer some of most burning questions surrounding the unrelenting virus such as how common is long COVID, how well previous infection and vaccinations protect against re-infection with new variants of the virus, and what factors are associated with COVID rebound. A new North Carolina study called VISION, funded by the N.C. Collaboratory, will enroll 7,500 adults recently diagnosed with COVID-19 to understand the different factors that impact individual risk for key clinical outcomes including recovery from acute illness, symptom rebound, re-infection, and long COVID.
David Wohl, MD
“There’s still a lot we don’t know about COVID-19,” said David Wohl, MD, professor of infectious diseases at the UNC School of Medicine and co-lead of the study. “If the past is any indication of the future, we are going to be dealing with COVID-19 for a long time and that means people will continue to get infected and then re-infected. The more that we learn now, the better prepared we will be in the future.”
As the largest observational study of its kind in North Carolina, VISION will answer critical questions by following people over time. All of the 7,500 people who join the study will regularly complete online surveys about their health, and 750 of them will also be seen in person for blood and nasal swab tests.
For the people, by the people
Funded by the state legislature for the people of North Carolina, VISION participants will complete the online surveys for up to 72 weeks.
Participants must …