Chasing Covid Cohort

Abstract Immediate characterization of the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) on communitySARS/COV2 spread will be essential to safely re-opening the U.S. economy. We propose integration of rapidserologic assessment and extension of follow-up in an existing national cohort study of SARS/COV2, theCHASING COVID Cohort (C3) study. Launched on March 28th, 2020, we have already enrolled >4,700 adultparticipants from all 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico into longitudinal follow-up (Figure), providing the opportunityfor rapid investigation of the effect of different NPIs on SARS/COV2 spread in the United States. With this newapplication for funding, we seek to expand on this work by adding rapid serologic testing and extendingfollow-up to address the following specific aims: 1. Estimate the cumulative incidence of SARS/COV2, and evaluate impact of different NPIs on the cumulative incidence of SARS/COV2 infection, COVID (disease), andCOVID deaths; 2. Estimate the proportion of persons with serologic evidence of SARS/COV2 infection who were asymptomatic or had only mild symptoms; 3. Assess whether SARS/COV2 antibodies are protective againstsubsequent COVID disease. We will conduct in-depth interviews with participants to help contextualize andinterpret key findings. To help increase the scientific impact of this project, we will post public use datasets onGitHub, along with software tools. By deploying specimen collection now, the rapid knowledge gained byaddressing the above aims will help inform policy and implementation and relaxing of NPIs, as well asmathematical models, in the US and around the world.