Coronavirus Resources

The emergence of COVID-19, the novel coronavirus disease, as a global pandemic is a clear reminder of the importance of investment in research to better understand how to prevent and treat disease. It also underscores why we need to greatly strengthen our public health capacity against such threats. We know COVID-19 is top of mind for you, and it is for us, too. Research!America is working hard to assure federal funding and policy actions are evidence-based and match the urgency needed.  We will continue to keep you up-to-date about important advocacy opportunities so you can join with us. Let’s call on policymakers to match the abundance of caution we are all so importantly practicing now with an abundance of research.  

This page features resources from Research!America and our many expert partners. Please use and share these trusted resources in your own work, for advocacy, on social media, and with neighbors, family, and friends.

New

Expert scientific members of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) guided the creation of a public education unit on the mRNA vaccines. Learn about mRNA vaccines and how do they work to defend against COVID-19 here. 

Scripps Research has developed Outbreak.info. Outbreak.info standardizes and aggregates COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 data for easy access. The interface aggregates journal articles, preprints, clinical trials, protocols, and other resources in one place, standardizing metadata and applying NLP to make these sources searchable and more accessible. The interactive data dashboards allow for quick comparison of countries, states, counties, and metro areas, and includes an API and R Package for researchers who want to access all of the raw data.

NIH has a new COVID-19 website. The website features news on the latest NIH research, funding opportunities, and information on how to join a clinical trial.

U.S. Government Resources

The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), in coordination with NIH and Operation Warp Speed, has launched a central web portal called Combat COVID (https://combatcovid.hhs.gov/).

The portal is a one-stop resource to help members of the public and doctors find information about different stages of COVID-19 illness, NIH-supported COVID-19 prevention and treatment clinical trials, and locations to donate plasma.  The website provides clear and easy-to-understand information for:

Visit combatCOVID.hhs.gov to learn more.​

Research!America Resources

Public Opinion Survey Data 

Fact Sheets/Infographics

Research!America Alliance member events

  • Alliance member webinar on January 11, 2020 with Dr. Larry Tabak, Principal Deputy Director of the National Institutes of Health, and Dr. Michael Lauer, NIH Deputy Director of Extramural Research, who discussed updates for FY21 NIH grants and answered audience questions. 

  • Alliance member webinar on December 3, 2020, with Dr. Alan Peterson, who joined us to discuss the critical intersection between the pandemic and mental health, including depression and PTSD.

  • Alliance member webinar on October 15, 2020, on ClinicalTrials.gov with Anna Fine and Becky Williams exploring the role ClinicalTrials.gov is playing in COVID-19 information-sharing and the status of a major ClinicalTrials.gov modernization project.

  • Alliance member webinar on September 30, 2020, with Dr. Larry Tabak, Principal Deputy Director of the National Institutes of Health, who discussed how NIH is addressing the current funding situation due to COVID-19 and the outlook for FY2021 grants/

  • Alliance member webinar on July 27, 2020, with Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, MD, Director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), who discussed the Institute's COVID-19 response and racial and ethnic disparities in the pandemic’s impact.

  • Alliance member webinar on July 23, 2020, with Judy Salerno, MD, MS, president, New York Academy of Medicine, who shared her experience returning to clinical work at Bellevue Hospital during the height of the COVID-19 crisis in New York City. 

  • Alliance member webinar on July 13, 2020, with Gary Gibbons, MD, Director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Gibbons discussed NHLBI's COVID-19 response given the significance of heart and lung conditions, racial and ethnic disparities in the pandemic’s impact, and the effect of COVID-19 on research outside the pandemic’s sphere.

  • Alliance member webinar July 9, 2020, with Chris Austin, MD, Director of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Austin discussed about NCATS's new Open Data Portal, National COVID Cohort Collaborative and other NCATS priorities.

  • Alliance member webinar on June 29, 2020, with former CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, to discuss how to expedite the resources needed when pandemics and other national public health emergencies arise.

  • Alliance member webinar on June 24, 2020, with Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at NIH and Patrick J. Kennedy, Former U.S. Representative (D – RI) and Founder of the Kennedy Forum. 

  • Alliance member webinar on June 19, 2020, featuring Dr. Jeff Allen, President and CEO of Friends of Cancer Research (Friends). Dr. Allen spoke about the halted clinical trials and the long term impacts of COVID-19 on clinical research.

  • Alliance member webinar on June 1, 2020, featuring Dr. Josh Gordon, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Dr. Gordon discussed the Institute’s work about NIMH's COVID-19 response and the critical intersection between the pandemic and mental health.

  • Alliance member webinar on May 22, 2020, featuring Dr. Victor Dzau of the National Academies of Medicine. Dr. Dzau discussed the NAM's work related to COVID-19. 

  • Alliance member webinar on May 11, 2020, featuring The Honorable Louis W. Sullivan, former Secretary of Health and Human Services and Chairman, Sullivan Alliance to Transform the Health Professions. He spoke about health disparities in the context of COVID-19 and the importance of effective communication about public health. 

  • Alliance Member Call on May 6, 2020, featuring Dr. Peter Hotez, Dean of the Baylor School of Medicine National School of Tropical Medicine. Dr. Peter Hotez spoke about the history of vaccines, COVID-19 vaccine development, and the spread of the novel coronavirus across the southern hemisphere. He also spoke about the anti-science and anti-vaccine movements in our country and globally. You can watch the meeting here and you can view his slides here.

  • Alliance member call on April 30, 2020, featuring Dr. Francis Collins, Director of NIH, and Dr. Keith Yamamoto, Professor Emeritus, Vice Chancellor for Science Policy and Strategy, and Director, UCSF Precision Medicine at  UC San Francisco. Dr. Collins provided an overview of NIH’s unprecedented Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) and the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) Initiative. Dr. Yamamoto discussed the impact of COVID-19 on the research ecosystem and highlighted some of the collaborations taking place to respond to the pandemic.

  • Alliance member call on April 28, 2020: Donna Cryer, President and CEO of the Global Liver Institute (GLI) and interim director of the National Patient-Centered Research Network (PCORnet). Donna shared updates on GLI's comprehensive COVID-19 response program, including a popular Facebook Live series for the patient, caregiver, and research community (in other words, for all of us!) Leslie Ritter, the Senior Director of Advocacy at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS) also joined us to discuss the disruptive impact of COVID-19 on research supported by voluntary health associations, philanthropies, and scientific societies. Contact Leslie to join an advocacy effort focused on addressing this challenge. See the recording here (registration required.)

  • Alliance member call on April 20, 2020: Dr. Harvey Fineberg, President of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and chair of the National Academies Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases joined us for an alliance member call to discuss COVID-19. 

  • Alliance member call on April 15, 2020: Scott Whitaker, President and CEO of AdvaMed discussed how the medical device and diagnostic sectors are working on to combat the pandemic. Dr. Rick Bright, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and the Director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) provided an update on BARDA's COVID-19 efforts. 

  • Alliance member call on April 7, 2020 with Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, where he discussed the nationwide response to COVID-19 and National Public Health Week. Viewers will need to provide basic registration information to access.

  • Alliance member call on March 24, 2020 (viewers will need to provide basic registration information to access) with Dr. David Skorton, president of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Dr. Skorton and members of his team discussed strategies academic health centers are employing to address COVID-19 and answered questions from the audience. Follow-up blog post from Dr. Skorton: "To address COVID-19 and future pandemics, we must address fundamental questions." 

  • Teleconference on March 16, 2020 (viewers will need to provide basic registration information to access) with Dr. Larry Tabak, Principal Deputy Director of the National Institutes of Health, and Dr. Michael Lauer, Deputy Director for Extramural Research. The topic was NIH’s efforts to ensure research institutions and scientists are accorded the flexibility needed as they confront COVID-19-related research disruptions.

  • 2019 National Health Research Forum: Centers for Disease Control Mission and Public Health Priorities | Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was one of many keynote speakers at a day-long forum hosted by Research!America. Dr. Redfield focused on his agency’s mission and public health priorities.: 

  • 2018 Briefing by Research!America and the American Society for Microbiology (ASM): Vaccines and stronger public health infrastructures are critical to tackle global health threats, said experts at a briefing hosted by Research!America and the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. on May 21, 2018: 

  • Health experts talked about the spread of infectious diseases and what the U.S. is doing to prevent potential outbreaks on May 21, 2018. Speakers included the head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and the director of the National Institutes of Health. Includes Dr. Anthony Fauci (NIAID), Dr. Nancy Messonier (CDC) Dr. Stacey Schultz-Cherry (American Society for Virology)

webinars

  • Webinar: Understanding the Landscape of COVID-19 Vaccine and Treatment R&D featuring Mark McClellan, Stefano Bertuzzi, and Julie Gerberding. This webinar provided a high-level overview of the most promising scientific approaches underway to create vaccines, treat COVID-19 symptoms, cure serious cases, and prevent infection. Panelists discussed how the existing R&D pipeline is being leveraged to address COVID-19 and provided examples of public-private partnerships. 

  • Partnership, Progress, Pandemic: The Impact of COVID-19 on Medical Discovery featuring Sudip Parikh, Ned Sharpless, Jenny Luray, Eleanor Perfetto, and Heather Pierce. View the recorded webinar here. This virtual roundtable discussion explored the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public and private sector-fueled medical progress. The panelists discussed the pandemic’s influence on the research NIH conducts and supports, our nation’s R&D infrastructure, the private sector investment climate, technology transfer and other key variables influencing the pace of medical progress, and opportunities to quickly reboot R&D as we move forward.

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Without continued support for health research, many of the most promising young scientists, their ideas and a myriad of potentially life-changing scientific breakthroughs will vanish into oblivion.
Paul Marinec, PhD; University of California San Francisco