Thank you.
Mr. Chair, I would note that certainly something we are learning about COVID is that it has some enduring effects. The World Health Organization has estimated that 10% to 20% of the people who have had a COVID-19 infection could experience one or more symptoms past 12 weeks after the initial diagnosis, and there are some studies that suggest this number could be higher. It is an area of active research through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, which have in total invested across this and other areas of COVID-19 research about $300 million and which have focused considerable effort on working with clinical researchers, public health experts and others to better understand, identify and develop treatment approaches for impacts such as long COVID.
This will be a sustained level of effort. I think the Canadian Institutes of Health Research have launched a call for research proposals to further understand this with an additional $119 million in research to support that work.