Dear LPG,

I would like to tell readers about what I tend to call ‘My little survey’ although it is not that little, and it is not really mine.

I know the house-arrest aspect of the whole Covid-19 episode appears to be coming to an end now, but the one thing that can be said about it is that it has baffled so many of the governments and scientific agencies around the world, and there is still a lot of research to be done before we can really say this global enemy has been defeated.

When it all started, my friends and I took the advice to telephone each other every day quite literally, and one thing that we often talked about was what we could do to help.   We came to the conclusion that so much of the research involved uncomfortable tests which required procedures like poking swabs up your nose and down your throat, but then one of us came across a simple way that we can make a difference.

She introduced the rest of us to the ‘Covid Symptom Study’ where just documenting how it is affecting your day-by-day life helps to give a national picture of how it is affecting different people, of different age groups, in different parts of the country. 

It is always accepted that older people tend not to have smart phones, but I know that since the pandemic started many of my friends have bought one and I have learnt a lot more about mine so that I could see my friends as well as talk to them and, having mastered that, I have learnt about a few more things that you can do with them; taking part in this survey being one.

All you have to do, once you have found someone to help you to download the app, is update how you are feeling by pressing a few buttons each day. It's all anonymous and they just ask you to report in each day on any changes in health and how having the vaccine has affected you.

The other is that you get the opportunity to see what is happening in your area in a little more detail and there is something special about knowing that you are doing something positive to help.

I mentioned that it was little, but it is a well-respected survey with more than 4,620,305 contributors to date, which has speeded up the knowledge about Covid by years.   Taking part is one way of helping with the fight to get it out of our lives. There is something special about knowing that I am doing something to help, and it is a way of helping the research without doing anything scary.

LM, Dartford

LM shares a little more information about this survey…

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