Anyone doing the ONS covid-19 infection survey?

[FreakStar]

We have been selected to do this survey fo the Office for National Statistics- an official just came and took swabs and information from us. It seems like a really good study to be part of- they will test us each week for 5 weeks and then once a month thereafter for a year.

We apparently should get vouchers each time for taking part. We did another survey last year and were given vouchers after answering the questions. This guy didn't give us any. Do you think he should have? Or will we get them later? Anyone else done this?

[Vanannabananna]

We are. It looks very interesting. We didn’t get them at the time. We got ours in the post last time.

[FreakStar]

Oh, ok- I'll hang fire then! It felt too rude to sat "where's my voucher" to the man

He did say we would be informed of the results within a few days. I don't expect them to be positive. It's great to be part of this important survey- hopefully it will help them get a much clearer picture of how many people have actually had it.

[Vanannabananna]

My husband was rung by them today to check something and he actually asked. They said to ask the person who will come to swab us next week.

Tbh we didn’t see about the voucher until we agreed to do the study but it’s a nice bonus. We told our 4 year old if he did it he could spend his voucher on whatever he wanted 😂. Even the 2 year old co operated.

It will be interesting to get the results.

[Lostoldusername]

I received a text to say the voucher will be sent via email by today for anyone tested up to the 10th May.
It didn't say where the voucher is for - my 6yr old is very keen to know where he is allowed to buy stuff from!

[Realitea]

How do you sign up for this? Sounds great!

[PuzzledObserver]

I’m intrigued that they are offering vouchers - is that necessary? Blood donors do it for a cup of tea and a biscuit!

I’ve been invited to take part in a survey for antibodies - blood sample collected at home once a month for six months. No mention of vouchers there.

[timeforawine]

How do you find out about these?

[Lostoldusername]

We were sent a letter, and like a previous poster - had agreed to do the survey already. We only realised when someone else told us.
We were selected because we had done surveys before.

[BameChange123]

Yes we got an invitation this week. We have previously taken part in ONS national labour force study over the past 15 years and want to do my bit!

[Madcats]

How are you all getting on with the study? We are just about to be second-swabbed as what they seem to be referring to as the "July cohort".

Both testers will have travelled some distance to get to us (even though we are in a fair sized city) so need to see us before 3pm to get samples back to a courier. This now means that DD(13) can't get tested unless they agree to come before 8:30am (though I think our original letter suggested that evening visits were possible).

I would have thought that the young sociable teens would be exactly the sort of people they want to keep tabs on, not their "working from home and we sometimes go to a supermarket or pub" parents.

Also, did you ever get any results? We were given the impression that we would only be contacted if we were "positive" (so we won't know whether we are swabbing correctly).

I also can't help wondering whether it's all of us newbie ONS study recruits that are causing chaos at the testing labs - I thank they said our blood samples were going to Oxford and Milton Keynes was testing the swabs. The letter said they were hoping to have 250.000 in the study (and today I think they said the testing backlog for pillar 2 was 185,000).

[BameChange123]

We are now on our third week. Our “sampler” is clearly not from our large city so I gave him some info on local facilities (parks, parking,shops, loos etc). It’s been ok but we may have to skip one of the weekly tests as working away soon. Hope to do the entire year. Will use vouchers to make food bank donations