Title: Ensuring Understanding of COVID–19 to Protect Public Health Act
Policy area: Health

Summary:
Ensuring Understanding of COVID-19 to Protect Public Health Act
This bill requires the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to conduct a longitudinal study on the health impacts of COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019). The NIH must provide public summaries of findings on specified timelines.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 176 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 176

       To require a longitudinal study on the impact of COVID-19.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            February 2, 2021

 Ms. Rosen (for herself and Mr. Rubio) introduced the following bill; 
     which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, 
                     Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
       To require a longitudinal study on the impact of COVID-19.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Ensuring Understanding of COVID-19 
to Protect Public Health Act''.

SEC. 2. STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF COVID-19.

    Part A of title IV of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 281 
et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 404O. STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF COVID-19.

    ``(a) In General.--The Director of NIH, in consultation with the 
Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shall 
conduct a longitudinal study, over not less than 10 years, on the full 
impact of COVID-19 on infected individuals, including both short-term 
and long-term health impacts.
    ``(b) Timing.--The Director of NIH shall begin enrolling patients 
in the study under this section not later than 6 months after the date 
of enactment of this section.
    ``(c) Requirements.--The study under this section shall--
            ``(1) be nationwide;
            ``(2) include diversity of enrollees to account for gender, 
        age, race, ethnicity, geography, comorbidities, and 
        underrepresented populations, including pregnant and lactating 
        women;
            ``(3) study individuals who were infected with COVID-19 who 
        experienced mild symptoms, such individuals who experienced 
        moderate symptoms, and such individuals who experienced severe 
        symptoms;
            ``(4) monitor the health outcomes and symptoms of 
        individuals who were infected with COVID-19, or had prenatal 
        exposure to COVID-19, including lung capacity and function, and 
        immune response, taking into account any pharmaceutical 
        interventions such individuals may have received;
            ``(5) monitor the mental health outcomes of individuals 
        infected with COVID-19, taking into account any interventions 
        that affected mental health; and
            ``(6) monitor individuals enrolled in the study not less 
        frequently than twice per year after the first year of the 
        individual's infection with COVID-19.
    ``(d) Public-Private Research Network.--For purposes of carrying 
out the study under this section, the Director of NIH may develop a 
network of public-private research partners, provided that all 
research, including the research carried out through any such partner, 
is available publicly.
    ``(e) Summaries of Findings.--The Director of NIH shall make public 
a summary of findings under this section not less frequently than once 
every 3 months for the first 2 years of the study, and not less 
frequently than every 6 months thereafter. Such summaries may include 
information about how the findings of the study under this section 
compare with findings from research conducted abroad.
    ``(f) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out this 
section.''.
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