Coronavirus Survey for people in the UK

I hope it is ok to post this link, which I think is important as it will help the UK reduce the spread of Covid-19. If not then I guess it will be deleted and I will get a slapped wrist.

It is to a suvery, “COVID-19 Symptom Surveillance - Help scientists identify high-risk areas and slow the outbreak of coronavirus”

https://www.patientaccess.com/coronavirus/triage?utm_source=patientaccess&utm_campaign=covid19&utm_medium=covidpage&iitt=Efs_O.Vl4Dol4F1ZtfeN4uYA4F_74Gl7h.4Ltf4sxknjhuHX4ubpOnTT

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Only if you have had or believe you have had the virus

A better and more relevant survey, for people with and without symptoms, is this academic research project. It takes a few seconds to report if you are well and if you are not then it records what symptoms you have and gets you advice if you want it. It has a couple of million people signed up already and it isn’t commercially based at all.

Best

David

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David’s link is the one we’ve been using, there’s an app and you respond every day. I hope this data is proving useful.

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This is the app we’re using.
It’s nice that it’s free and also provides a foundation for academic research.

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The survey I posted is also an academic project and equally valid, just being undertaken by another research group. No need to be sniffy about it.

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I’m not being sniffy about it, but the project you mention is only for people who have or have had COVID 19 symptoms, whereas the one I suggest is for everyone. The fact that people don’t have symptoms is also of interest to the Kings College London study.

Best

David

Your original post said that the Kings College one was better, that is not the case, both studies are looking at different aspects. Both are valid and useful and will add to the body of knowledge and taken together will give a better understanding of the spread of Covid 19 through the population and how the illness manifests in people.

The link I posted is being sent out by the GPs who use the Patient Access System to keep in contact with patients, (for appointments/repeat prescriptions etc) . This research sponsored by the Royal College of General Practitioner’s Research & Surveillance Centre and the University of Oxford. It is being used to help GPs find hot spots and other demographic information, discover more about the symptoms and to develop a better understanding of the illness and improve treatment protocols. It is not a worse survey, it is doing something different and compliments the King’s College and other surveys that are being used throughout the country. As a retired health professional, I think it is a good thing that there are many groups researching this. Having a few studies is a real benefit because it will speed up the building of a body of knowledge.

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I am happy to bow to your superior knowledge. I agree that all research is useful but for people who don’t have any symptoms, unless I have misunderstood it, the Patient Access study seems not relevant?

Anyway the last thing I wanted to do was pick a fight with anyone. So apologies if that is how it came across to you,
Best

David

It seems to me that to support research, as many people as possible (that are eligible where there are required criteria like having had it) should participate in all available research projects and not pick just one - so the more posted here the better, provided bone fide, it would, however, be useful to post any eligibility criteria to save people wasting their time if clearly ineligible.

One missing survey is one to seek out whether people have had odd symptoms not quite meeting the defined COVID-19 trigger criteria, and whether any such people have been tested (with result) to help assess whether the disease may already have been more widespread than recognised, and identifying from that criteria for priority of antibody testing if/when that becomes widely available. There certainly seems to have been a rather odd cold doing the rounds this year - odd cold meaning loosely cold-like symptoms but different from normal.

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The Covid Zoe study I mentioned a few posts back is asking about others symptoms besides the temperature and cough duo. They have discovered from the 2M plus people reporting daily that if you have a loss of taste and/or smell then there is a 60% chance that if tested you would have Covid. They are discussing with the UK Government the evidence for adding this as a symptom alongside the other two.

This study is the largest health study conducted by app ever anywhere in the world. They are aiming to get 10M Brits reporting daily.

There is a lot of very interesting information on their website. I really commend it as worth a look.

Best

David

The current state of play with COVID-19 is not really defined by whether our government accept a symptom or not. The medical consensus is that this is a virus which largely enters via nose and lungs but but not always. It then goes on the hunt for weaknesses and thus symptoms vary hugely. There are multiple reports of people with no cough, no temperature, plenty of taste and smell but the symptoms of a heart attack, stroke or brain aneurism. All Covid-19.

Similarly academic research simply can’t keep up. It researches what it can get funding for which isn’t necessarily what needs to be researched. Schneier and others have written extensively on tracking apps in recent weeks.

The number of false positives and false negatives render them wholly useless. They’re what government does when it needs to be seen to be doing something.

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