As Jason and his team were analyzing data earlier this year — seeking patterns that might explain why some students remained healthy and others got sick and stayed sick — reports began emerging of troubling medical complaints lasting for weeks and months following cases of Covid-19.

Some of these post-Covid symptoms, including profound exhaustion after exertion and deficits in memory and concentration, resembled those experienced by ME/CFS patients.

“We will be able to compare the biological and behavioral data of young adults’ experiences prior to the Covid-19 epidemic and during the Covid-19 epidemic,” noted Jason during a recent conference presentation about the research.

This kind of prospective research design, in which people are enrolled before falling ill, allows researchers to make robust comparisons between those who return to health and those who never recover.

and elsewhere, major research centers and medical organizations are now launching studies and registries of patients who have not recovered from Covid-19.

To date, much of what is known about what has been called “long-Covid” comes from research led by patients themselves, often called “long-haulers.” In May, a research team from Body Politic, an online patient support community, released the results of a survey of 640 long-haulers, documenting a surprising array of symptoms.

A major advantage is that they can incorporate recent developments and be conducted quickly, said Brooklyn, N.Y., artist Hannah Davis, who has a background in artificial intelligence and is a member of Body Politic’s research team.

Rubenstein expects more studies of Covid-19 and long-Covid to piggyback on existing research cohorts that were established for other purposes.

The similarities between symptoms experienced by ME/CFS patients and some long-haulers suggest that research into the processes driving one disease might provide insights into the other, say researchers.

In the college student study, funded with $3 million from the National Institutes of Health, about 5% of the sample developed mononucleosis and 8% of those patients met diagnostic criteria for ME/CFS after six months, said Jason, although the findings are still unpublished.

Given the new circumstances, they have added questions about coronavirus infection, Covid-19, and post-Covid symptoms, and outreach has already begun