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Covid-19 Infection Survey (CIS) - anyone else taking part?



Jim in the West

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Sep 13, 2003
4,530
Way out West
The CIS is a major study aiming to better understand how many people across the UK have already had Covid-19, and helping the government work out how to manage the spread of Covid-19. It was announced by the government a couple of weeks ago, and is being run by the ONS, Oxford University, and an American research company called IQVIA. We were selected/invited to take part - we got a hand-delivered letter on the day after the survey was announced (special Royal Mail van drew up outside our house at 7.30 in the morning - all very dramatic!)

The letter is an invitation - you then need to ring them (in this case, IQVIA) to tell them you want to take part. We decided that it would be quite interesting - you get tested every week, and get to know whether you've had (or have) the disease. Unfortunately (based on our experience to date) it's an absolute shambles. Firstly, it was impossible to get through to IQVIA - we were left on hold loads of times, then you get to leave a message, and someone promises to call you back (no-one did). Eventually after many attempts we managed to register ourselves. We were then told a nurse would visit to take the first swabs. This was supposed to be last Tuesday (28th April). No-one appeared, so we rang them to find out what was happening. We were told the nurses were very busy (fair enough), and that the nurse would call us the next day. No call. We have rung back a few times since to find out what's happening, and been told (a) there's a shortage of nurses, and (b) there's a shortage of test kits!

I'm beginning to get a bit cynical about the whole thing. It looks very important - being run by the ONS and University of Oxford - but they've outsourced the admin and the management of the testing to a US company who just don't seem to be up to the job. I was wondering whether anyone else on NSC is taking part - if so, hopefully you are having a better experience!
 





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