Webinar The Future of IACCI and Long Covid Research: ME/CFS and the Unfinished Work of the COPVS Task Force

In 2021 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched the RECOVER Initiative, a patient-centered, integrated, adaptive research network created to study Long Covid. Included in the RECOVER Initiative infrastructure was the Commonalities with Other Post-Viral Syndromes Task Force.

The Task Force included Solve President and CEO Emily Taylor, Dr. Leonard Jason (Professor of Psychology at DePaul University and the Director of the Center for Community Research), and other well-known ME/CFS experts and played a crucial role in fostering collaboration among researchers, clinicians, and patient advocates. It also facilitated the exchange of knowledge and identified common data elements, treatment strategies, and diagnostic criteria. This multidisciplinary approach was essential for advancing our understanding of post-viral illnesses and developing effective interventions.

The Task Force concluded that Long Covid researchers can learn from ME/CFS efforts to identify key symptoms, provide explicit criteria for when a symptom meets the threshold for being considered a problem, and employ tactics to ensure that consistent information is elicited from patient interviews across settings.

The Task Force published a paper on their findings in December 2023 and was then disbanded by NIH. However, there is clearly still a need to educate care providers, researchers, and the public about the connection between ME/CFS and Long Covid.

In this webinar, Emily Taylor and Dr. Jason will discuss their findings and what they signal for the future of research on ME/CFS, Long Covid, and other infection-associated chronic conditions and illnesses (IACCIs). The session will conclude with the launch of an important advocacy action.