San Mateo County studying long COVID

Through the end of the year, County Health and its partner agencies are hoping to hear from as many San Mateo and San Francisco residents as possible who have recently contracted COVID-19. The goal — to study if and how the virus has affected various communities differently to help develop treatments and methods for prevention.

The study, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, is titled “Let’s Figure Out Long COVID – Tell Us Your Story, Bay Area,” and works by having residents contacted by the three agencies respond to a short survey about their experience with COVID.

Dr. Dan Kelly, assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the UCSF School of Medicine, said researchers have already learned quite a bit since starting the study. Many who have contracted the virus continue to experience brain fog, their ability to multi-task has been stunted and physical tasks that once were easily doable now take much more effort to complete, he said.

Researchers believe it’s possible the virus is hiding in parts of the body, leading to more long-term symptoms, but more public participation is necessary to help deepen the research and advance a cure, Kelly said.

“It’s a complicated story. It’s not just the virus. It’s not just the immune system. It’s intertwined,” Kelly said. “It’s a process. We’re getting closer but we’re not there yet and we need people’s help.”

Those who opt into the study will be asked to complete an initial survey, requiring about 10 minutes. Following the survey, some participants will be invited to an interview which lasts up to about three hours, Kelly said, noting participants are compensated with $150 on their first visit.

A second phase of the study would ask that participants return periodically for shorter assessments for which they would also be compensated at rates starting at $75. The study is expected to span the next four years but Kelly stressed that participants would be asked to return no more than three times a year.

“The biggest ask is for individuals in San Mateo County to basically connect with us to enroll in the NIH study,” Kelly said, adding that the team would appreciate any level of participation. “What we really need is a cure and we can’t find a cure if we don’t get people indoors in our research site in Daly City.”

All residents of any race or background who have contracted COVID-19 within the last 30 days are encouraged to participate and researchers are particularly interested in hearing from members of underserved communities hardest hit by COVID-19 over the last two years.

In San Mateo County, Latino residents have often been the most frequently infected which official have credited to often being in jobs where remote work was unavailable and living in crowded homes. As of Tuesday, Latinos accounted for 47,649 of the county’s more than 169,000 COVID-19 cases, with residents of color accounting for 87,870 cases, according to the County Health COVID-19 Dashboard.

Having been the primary agency responding to COVID-19 over the last two years, Chan said County Health’s epidemiology and communicable disease teams have grown deeply familiar with the groups most affected by the virus, down to the neighborhood.

That, in part, is thanks to a previous study the county conducted with UCSF in which research teams focused on how COVID-19 was being transmitted within homes. And that work influenced the county’s contact tracing efforts, the practice of reaching out to people who have been in close contact with those who have contracted the virus.

Contact tracing is done less frequently now given that many are testing at home, the public has grown more familiar with the virus and uptake in COVID-19 vaccinations has been strong, Chan said. But there’s more to learn from the public which is why the county is tapping back into its outreach efforts, including connecting with trusted community organizations, to encourage vital participation, he added.

“We’ve been supporting people who’ve been infected during the acute phase of infection, helping and understanding as communities how the pandemic affected those individuals acutely,” Chan said. “But we realize that long COVID is definitely real and we want to be able to understand how long COVID is affecting our San Mateo County community members and we want to provide them with information about how they can get health services and resources to address long COVID.”

Those interested in the study should email figuringoutlongcovid@ucsf.edu for more information.

sierra@smdailyjournal.com

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