In progress
An ad hoc committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will examine the state of scientific evidence on the direct effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection on neurocognitive function across the lifespan, including children, adolescents, working-aged adults, and older adults. The committee will also consider implications for military force readiness, military and veteran health, and health system planning.
Statement of Task
An ad hoc committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will conduct a study addressing the following questions:
- What is the current state of scientific evidence regarding the direct effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection on neurocognitive function across the lifespan, including children, adolescents, working-aged adults, and older adults?
- Which cognitive domains are most consistently affected following SARS-CoV-2 infection, based on validated neuropsychological, educational, occupational, and functional metrics?
- What evidence exists from laboratory, clinical, neuroimaging, neuropathological, and mechanistic studies regarding the biological pathways by which SARS-CoV-2 may affect neuronal function, neuroinflammation, cerebrovascular integrity, synaptic processes, or neurodevelopment?
- How do neurocognitive outcomes differ by severity of initial infection, reinfection, and presence or absence of post-acute sequelae?
- What is known about the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on children and adolescents, including effects on:
- Learning, academic performance, and school-based cognitive metrics
- Attention, executive function, memory, and developmental milestones
- Attendance, special education needs, and standardized testing outcomes, where studied
- Potential impact of such effects on acceptability for military recruitment, service and performance
- Occupational performance and functional capacity
- Complex cognitive tasks relevant to military and civilian work settings
- Aging trajectories and interactions with underlying medical conditions
- Neurocognitive impairment following infection
- Long COVID-associated cognitive symptoms
- Repeated infections and cumulative cognitive risk
The committee’s analysis will consider implications for:
- Force readiness, training, performance and retention
- Long-term health trajectories of service members
- Aging and medically complex veteran populations
- Occupational and cognitive demands specific to military service
- Health system planning within military and veteran contexts
The committee will develop a report with its findings and conclusions regarding the questions above; no recommendations will be developed.
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Comment on Provisional Committee Appointments
Viewers may communicate with the National Academies at any time over the project's duration. In addition, formal comments on the provisional appointments to a committee of the National Academies are solicited during the 20-calendar day period following the posting of the membership and, as described below, these comments will be considered before committee membership is finalized. We welcome your comments (Use the Feedback link below). Please note that the appointments made to this committee are provisional, and changes may be made. No appointment shall be considered final until we have evaluated relevant information bearing on the committee's composition and balance. This information will include the confidential written disclosures to The National Academies by each member-designate concerning potential sources of bias and conflict of interest pertaining to his or her service on the committee; information from discussion of the committee's composition and balance that is conducted in closed session at its first event and again whenever its membership changes; and any public comments that we have received on the membership during the 20-calendar day formal public comment period. If additional members are appointed to this committee, an additional 20-calendar day formal public comment period will be allowed. It is through this process that we determine whether the committee contains the requisite expertise to address its task and whether the points of views of individual members are adequately balanced such that the committee as a whole can address its charge objectively.
Conflict of Interest Disclosure
Disclosure of Unavoidable Conflict of Interest Statement: Dr. Nadine Rouphael:
The conflict of interest policy of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (http://www.nationalacademies.org/coi) prohibits the appointment of an individual to a committee authoring a Consensus Study Report if the individual has a conflict of interest that is relevant to the task to be performed. An exception to this prohibition is permitted if the National Academies determines that the conflict is unavoidable and the conflict is publicly disclosed. A determination of a conflict of interest for an individual is not an assessment of that individual's actual behavior or character or ability to act objectively despite the conflicting interest.
Nadine Rouphael has a conflict of interest in relation to service on the Committee on Examination of the Direct Neurocognitive Effects of SARS-CoV-2 Infection Across the Lifespan and Implications for U.S. Military and Veteran Health related to current institutional research funding from several vaccine manufacturers, developers, sponsors, and research organizations on a range of diseases, including COVID-19, such as Allucent/BARDA, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Pfizer, and Sanofi. She also serves in compensated advisory or steering roles for AstraZeneca and Moderna and in compensated independent data and safety monitoring or safety monitoring roles for Allucent/BARDA, CyanVac and EMMES, and Sanofi.
The National Academies has concluded that for this committee to accomplish the tasks for which it was established, its membership must include at least one person who has substantial recent experience with companies involved in manufacturing, development, and evaluation of COVID-19 vaccines. As described in her biographical summary, Dr. Rouphael has extensive experience working with several companies in the pharmaceutical industry and advisory boards focusing on the development and evaluation of the safety, efficacy, and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.
The National Academies has determined that the experience and expertise of Dr. Rouphael is needed for the committee to accomplish the task for which it has been established. The National Academies could not find another available individual with the equivalent experience and expertise who does not have a conflict of interest. Therefore, the National Academies has concluded that the conflict is unavoidable.
The National Academies believes that Dr. Rouphael can serve effectively as a member of the committee, and the committee can produce an objective report, taking into account the composition of the committee, the work to be performed, and the procedures to be followed in completing the study.
Sponsors
Department of War
Staff
Leslie Kwan
Lead
Ogan Kumova
L. Brielle Dojer
Britt Blackwood