The pandemic has and continues to affect everyone and everything.  To many, the pandemic was finished a while ago; a memory best forgotten.  To still others, their quality of life has been permanently altered as they live with the embodied experiences of stress, illness, guilt, dependency, disability, and much more.  The ways we see ourselves and others have changed, including our families, other relationships motivations, careers, politics, religion, propensities for self-harm and xenophobia, and much more. Understanding better these long-term consequences at all population levels will help us address the personal, public, and institutional needs, from the neighborhood to the nation.  This requires surveillance of the pandemic’s effects.

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As prolifically reported already, the pandemic has caused long-term physical and mental health problems, with lasting inflammation and reactivation of old infections.  Use of alcohol and antidepressants has increased, and disproportionately in people of color.  Long-term effects of COVID include increases in anxiety and depression, worsening of pre-existing psychiatric conditions, chronic respiratory symptoms, sleep problems, declines in lean body mass and increases in fat mass and organ damage.  There continue to be disruptions to daily life, uncertainty about recovery, changes in identity, and more. 

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The follow-up to the original Waco COVID Survey includes a revised questionnaire as well as a visit to our clinic on the Baylor campus for body measurements, and saliva, hair, and blood collection.   We will use a constellation of clinically-relevant biomarkers to predict chronic health outcomes. results would be used to develop better communication materials on public health preparedness.  Other impacts include further community engagement specifically with underserved groups, student training in public health research, and support for patient-centered approaches to understanding the complexities of pandemic recovery throughout middle America.  This project provides the opportunity for hundreds of central Texans to share their recovery stories.

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Participants in the original Waco COVID Survey are being contacted by email to determine interest in continued participation.  This work is now being funded by a Baylor University Research Council ONE grant as well as an award from the Texas Academy of Family Physicians Foundation.  This work is sactioned by Baylor's Institutional Review Board.