Long COVID research gains momentum as scientists trace post-viral triggers

September 2, 2026 at 05:00 AM2 min

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Scientists are closing in on the triggers and treatments for long COVID and other post-viral syndromes. A 2024 study estimated 400 million people worldwide have long COVID, with an annual economic burden of about $1 trillion. Research funding has surged, with the US allocating $1.15 billion in 2020 and Germany announcing €500 million last year.

Key Facts

A 2024 study estimated that 400 million people worldwide have long COVID, with an annual economic burden of around US$1 trillion.
In December 2020, the US government allocated $1.15 billion to study the chronic consequences of SARS-CoV-2.
Last year, Germany announced €500 million ($580 million) in funding for research into post-infectious diseases.
Amy Proal co-founded PolyBio, a foundation in Medford, Massachusetts, that advances research on infection-associated chronic illnesses, in 2018.
In 1894, English physician Thomas Dowse described a cluster of symptoms that lingered long after infection, calling it 'post-influenza exhaustion'.

Research Momentum

Over the past six years, thousands of studies have explored the mechanisms underlying long COVID, its similarities to other post-infection conditions and potential treatments. The COVID pandemic has shone a light on this family of post-acute infection conditions, says David Putrino, a neuroscientist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. Nonetheless, the conditions' health and financial burden still strongly outweighs the funding, says Chris Ponting, a geneticist at the University of Edinburgh, UK. The community is working to understand the basic biology underlying these conditions and find reliable disease markers, the lack of which is the main obstacle to developing treatments.

Scientific Leads

How acute infections trigger chronic illnesses remains unclear, but many researchers think the field is closing in on explanations. We certainly don't have the answer, says Michael Peluso, an infectious-disease clinician at the University of California, San Francisco, but we have a lot of leads. Amy Proal, who was diagnosed with ME/CFS in 2005, improved her symptoms with antivirals and other drugs and went on to do a PhD in microbiology studying the lasting consequences of pathogens.