RECOVER Initiative Advances Long COVID Understanding: Jerry A. Krishnan, MD, PhD

COVID-19 is still a major public health concern, and even more so is long COVID. The National Institutes of Health launched the Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) initiative in 2021 to study the nuances of post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection or PASC, which is commonly known as long COVID.

At the American Thoracic Society 2026 International Conference in Orlando, Florida, held May 17-20, experts discussed findings from numerous trials that emerged from the initiative. One in particular assessed symptoms of long COVID in adults who had previously had COVID-19 and those who did not. One of the experts to speak on the data from the trial, Jerry A. Krishnan, MD, PhD, associate vice chancellor for population health sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago, said in an interview with The American Journal of Managed Care^® that this research allows physicians to describe long COVID, thus leading to diagnosis and eventually treatment.

“Long COVID is an extremely heterogeneous disease, both in terms of the types of symptoms that people might have and along with organ systems that are damaged by long COVID,” he said. “Although there are some hallmark symptoms or the main types of symptoms people have, there are over 200 symptoms, and it varies substantially based on the viral strain that infected the person, along with the host response to that viral strain.”

The most common symptoms, Krishnan said, are fatigue, neurocognitive dysfunction, cognitive impairment, shortness of breath, chronic cough, dizziness, and post-exertional malaise.

Post-exertional malaise, although unusual, is still a significant detriment to patients’ quality of life. Krishnan emphasized that patients who exhibit this symptom and exert, relatively, any amount of innocuous physical or mental exertion can be left bedridden for days or weeks.

“The multitude of symptoms are critical aspects of long COVID and are helping us determine that there are actually probably multiple pathophysiologic mechanisms that contribute to this,” he said.

References

1. Researching COVID to enhance recovery. RECOVER. Accessed May 17, 2026. https://recovercovid.org/about