Research priorities for Long Covid: refined through an international multi-stakeholder forum

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can lead to a diverse range of clinical manifestations, ranging from an asymptomatic infection to an acute respiratory distress syndrome, and multiorgan failure with high mortality rates [1]. It is established that SARS-CoV-2 not only infects the respiratory tract but that the ensuing viral replication and immune response also affects multiple organ systems, in addition to an acute systemic inflammatory response and in some cases accompanying tissue hypoxia and shock.\ud \ud While many who have been infected have uncomplicated recoveries, some have prolonged illness. Prolonged course of illness has been reported in adults and children and is affecting both those who were hospitalised with COVID-19 and those who were not [2,3,4,5,6,7].\ud \ud In December 2020 ISARIC (the International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infection Consortium), the research funders group GloPID-R (The Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness) and global group, Long Covid Support, jointly organised a ‘Long Covid Forum’ [8]. This public forum aimed to gain a better understanding of ‘Long Covid’ and to define research priorities for funders and researchers to take forward.