What we learned doing fast grants

From the article:

We plan to do a closer look at these projects in the future, but some of the noteworthy work supported by Fast Grants includes:

• The SalivaDirect team at Yale demonstrated that saliva-based COVID-19 tests can work just as well as those using nasopharyngeal swabs. This work was critical to ameliorate the swab and trained clinician (for swab-based test administration) shortages at the outset of the pandemic.
• We funded a number of clinical trials for repurposed drugs. The interim analysis for one of these trials (just completed) suggests that one common generic drug may reduce hospitalization from COVID-19 by about 40%. We expect an announcement here in the near future.
• Research into the causes of differential outcomes to COVID-19 infection based on underlying genetic factors and immune response profiles.
• Research into “Long COVID”, which is now being followed up with a clinical trial on the ability of COVID-19 vaccines to improve symptoms.
• Tracking the spread of new COVID-19 “variants of concern” before other sources of funding had stepped up at a diversified regional portfolio of sequencing labs.