Updates released on Thursday 7 January

In early January, our team released an update to improve the COVID-19 vaccine questions in the ZOE COVID Symptom Study. You can now:

1. Delete and replace a vaccine record‍

If you incorrectly entered a vaccine you can now remove it. The app will show you your recorded vaccine doses during the daily assessment. Simply delete it and enter a new one if you need to.

2. Record a second vaccine dose

Most COVID-19 vaccines will require a second dose to be effective. If you've recorded a first vaccine dose, you now have the opportunity to enter details of your second dose.

3. Record the dates of both vaccine doses

You can now record the dates of your vaccine doses. This includes records you've already made.

4. Tell us why you will not be getting a COVID-19 vaccine

You may have a reason to decline a COVID-19 vaccine. If you've not yet had a dose of the vaccine, we'll ask if you would have one. If not, you can select from a list of reasons or enter your own.

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When COVID-19 exploded in March 2020, we quickly set up the ZOE COVID Symptom Study to understand the virus. As a result, we identified additional symptoms including anosmia (loss of smell) and delirium (confusion). We also saw the emergence of long COVID before it was officially recognised.

As the pandemic shifts into a new phase, we’ll be tracking vaccine side effects in the app. Starting with adults in the UK and US vaccinated under national COVID-19 vaccination programmes.

Have you had a COVID-19 vaccine?

Even though many people won’t be vaccinated for some time, we’ve launched the questions early to capture as much data as possible from the first days of the vaccine roll-out. For the moment, you’ll only see this question if you’re over 16 years of age in the UK or US. If you’ve received a vaccine as part of a clinical trial, please continue to respond ‘no’ to this question. 

You’ll have the option to tell us if you’ve had a vaccine dose as part of your daily assessment until you tell us you’ve had one. 

How are you feeling after your COVID-19 vaccine?

Like most existing vaccines, some mild side effects of COVID-19 vaccines have already been identified in clinical trials, such as soreness, swelling, or itchiness at the site of the jab.

We ask if you’re experiencing any symptoms around the injection site. This is so we can investigate how symptoms vary between different people and vaccine types.

Log your symptoms every day following your COVID-19 vaccination

How you feel in the days following your vaccination is crucial information for our study. So please log your symptoms (or lack of symptoms) for seven straight days. Our study is more accurate with every report you make. It takes less than one minute a day.

Many people in the first wave of vaccinations are health and care workers, or older people. If you care for an elderly relative who may not use a smartphone, you can create a profile for them in the app and log health reports on their behalf.

We’ve added new symptoms to the daily assessment

Once you’ve answered the question about localised symptoms, you’ll be taken to the daily assessment to log your health report as usual. 

If you tell us you’re not feeling quite right, we’ve included a few more symptoms that might be related to your COVID-19 vaccination. Be sure to select any symptom you experience, whether or not you think it’s related to your vaccination.

We’ll optimise our questions as the vaccines roll out

To stay ahead of the curve and capture vital early data on vaccination we’ve released these questions quickly. 

We’ll be updating them as the roll-out continues, adding more detail in the weeks and months to come so we can better understand the vaccines people are having and how they’re responding.

Remember: like all your data in the ZOE COVID Symptom Study, your answers are anonymised and your privacy is our highest priority.

Haven't been asked about your COVID-19 vaccine?

Our vaccine questions are currently only available to adult users in the UK and US. If you're still not being asked about your COVID-19 vaccine:

• Make sure you have the latest version of the app (version 2.2.0 or higher) downloaded
• New users who have just joined the app will need to log a new daily report after setting up their profile. Simply click the dark red button at the top of your screen.
  

Thanks for logging.