Frequently Asked Questions
If you are interested in participating in Project PROTECTS, please click the 'Join Us' button below to see if you are eligible!
Join Project PROTECTS to access free at-home multi-virus rapid tests and contribute your experience with respiratory infections to improve health for everyone. The information you provide may inform future public health strategies and interventions aiming to mitigate the health impacts of respiratory viruses.
We are looking for a diverse group of people willing to share their unique perspectives. You may be eligible if you:
- are 18 years old or older;
- live in a US state, DC, or Puerto Rico;
- have a personal smartphone with a working camera;
- have a personal email address; and
- have internet access.
Project PROTECTS aims to help us better understand the short- and long-term effects of respiratory infections, and will use a variety of at-home testing options.
The Project PROTECTS Team at the City University of New York (CUNY) will do everything we can to protect the information you provide as part of this study and that can identify you. You will provide information for the study to us through the Project PROTECTS study website or app, which was developed and is maintained by Vibrent Health, a company that has collaborated with the National Institutes of Health and large academic medical centers on a variety of large health research studies.
Here are some of the steps we will take to protect your privacy:
- Information we have about you will be password-protected and kept on an encrypted server.
- Your contact information will be securely stored and will only be available to members of the CUNY study team who may need to contact you.
- We will securely store your name, contact information, and any other identifying information separate from your survey responses and lab results A code will be used to link your information to your survey responses and test results. There will be a master list linking the codes to names, and we will limit and keep track of who sees it.
- Your data will be used for research purposes only. Study data shared with research collaborators outside of CUNY will not contain information that could be used to identify you. Any collaborators with whom your information is shared are required to protect your information and not attempt to identify you from the study data.
- Any publications or presentations using data from Project PROTECTS will present combined data from the study. You will never be identified by name in any research dissemination resulting from this study.
After you complete the screening questions, you may receive an email with a link that you can share with your family or friends that may be interested in the study.
The study will last for 24 months (2 years), but you might finish the activities early.
Gift cards will be provided to participants as a thank you for the time spent completing study activities. Gift cards will be provided through Tremendous, which offers over 700 redeeming options, including Visa virtual gift cards, Amazon, Target, Starbucks, various charities, and more. Study participants can choose which type of gift card they receive on the Tremendous website.
Project PROTECTS will study several key respiratory infections, specifically COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and influenza A/B (flu).
Surveys allow us to gather information from large groups of people at different points in time. Project PROTECTS uses surveys to collect information about you and your health, respiratory infections, symptoms, and daily activities over 24 months (2 years). Your responses will help us understand who is participating in the study and how similar study participants are to the population of the United States. These surveys will tell us who is getting sick, what symptoms they are experiencing and how symptoms are changing over time.
Project PROTECTS hopes to find out new things about respiratory infections to understand and improve people's health. It is important to enroll many people in the study because we don't know if or when participants will get sick. We also know that illnesses impact people differently, making it important to enroll many participants to capture the range of experiences people may have with these infections. Participants also provide very important information when they are healthy.
The study will use both at-home rapid antigen tests that provide results in minutes and nasal and saliva samples sent to a lab to identify multiple respiratory infections (COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and influenza A/B (flu)). The study will also utilize surveys to gather they types of symptoms experienced and their duration, severyity, and impact on daily life. The findings will aim to help us better understand the short- and long-term effects on respiratory infections.
We will share findings and study updates for Project PROTECTS with participants through the study website, app, or email.
You will be able to read your rapid test results in real time. Lab test results will be shared back with you only if they indicate an infection that wasn't detected on your rapid tests.
As a Project PROTECTS participant, you will be asked to complete surveys about your daily life, health, experience with vaccines and medical treatments, and use of healthcare. You may also be asked to do at-home tests for COVID-19, RSV, and flu A/B and nasal swab and saliva specimen collection. You can also decide to share your electronic health record with us so we can link your study information to it.
Your participation in this research study is entirely voluntary. If you decide not to participate, there are no consequences. You can decide to withdraw your consent and stop participating in the research at any time. You can skip any survey or test, and stop your participation at any time. If you want to stop while you are in the middle of completing an activity or survey, just close the app or browser window. You can contact the study team any time to unenroll from the study.
Funding for this study is provided by Pfizer, Inc. to the City University of New York (CUNY) Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health.
All your individual answers and lab results will be kept secure and confidential and will only be shared with the Project PROTECTS team and our collaborators. We will protect your confidentiality by securely storing your contact information separate from your survey responses and lab results. Your contact information will not be shared with Pfizer or anyone outside of the CUNY Project PROTECTS team. Your responses will be combined with those from other individuals and summarized in aggregate form before they are shared externally. Publications and/or presentations that result from this study will not identify you by name.
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the research, you can contact a study coordinator at: [email protected]
- As a participant, you will receive free rapid at-home tests for COVID-19, RSV, and flu to use as part of the study.
- You will also receive 4 additional rapid at-home tests family and friends not enrolled in the study.
- There are no other direct benefits to you; however, you may enjoy participating in a health research study.
- The findings are expected to be important to shape future public health strategies and interventions to mitigate the impact of severe respiratory viruses.
Specimen collection, when initiated, will involve a nasal swab or saliva collection, which could cause mild discomfort or, in the case of the nasal swab, nose bleeds in rare cases. Answering questions about personal topics or health behaviors, respiratory symptoms, or healthcare access may cause you to feel upset or uncomfortable. There is a slight risk of loss of confidentiality through participating in a research study, though we will do everything possible to maintain your confidentiality.
Interested in becoming a participant in the Project PROTECTS study?