http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/congress-pumps-nsf-program-fast-track-covid-19-research

Researchers often use Rapid Response Research grants from the National Science Foundation to quickly launch studies of unexpected or traumatic events, such as the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Florida.

Roxane Silver studies the health effects of traumatic life events. So it was a no-brainer for the social psychologist at the University of California, Irvine, to ask the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund a study of how the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic would affect the well-being of Americans.