Frequently Asked Questions

About the SeaPrep Study

  • The SeaPrep study is led by the University of Washington.

    SeaPrep is part of the CHARM (Community and Household Acute Respiratory Illness Monitoring) Network, which is a collaboration between the University of Washington, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and University of California San Diego.

    This study is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

  • There are two parts to this study: Part A and Part B. Each part lasts a different amount of time and includes different study activities. You may have the choice to participate in Part A, Part B, or both. 

    All study activities can be done at home. 

    Part A

    • Participate for up to five years, but you can stop at any time

    • Complete surveys, including short weekly health surveys and a longer survey once or twice a year 

    • Complete additional short surveys if more information about specific behaviors or events is needed 

    • If you report symptoms, collect a nose swab sample and take a study provided at-home rapid test and report the results

    • Your nose swab will be tested in a lab for COVID-19, flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and other germs (viruses and bacteria) 

    Sub-Study for Part A

    • Continue all the activities in Part A 

    • Complete short weekly health surveys, including questions about immunizations 

    • Give blood samples two times each year using a simple, nearly painless, at-home device called tasso+

    •  Depending on your age and if you become sick or receive an immunization, you may give two or three more optional blood samples.  

    Part B

    • Participate for about a month 

    • Complete surveys, including a survey on the day you start Part B and daily short symptom surveys for two weeks 

    • Collect a nasal swab each day for two weeks 

    • Take a study provided at-home rapid test  

    • Your nose swab will be tested in a lab for COVID-19, flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and other germs 

    • Give two optional blood samples using a simple, nearly painless, at-home device called Tasso, once on your first day and again about a month later

  • Yes, you will receive different amounts depending on if you are part of Part A, Part B, or both. 

    If you join Part A, you will get free at-home rapid tests and up to $165 per year: 

    • $15 for enrollment, 

    • $10 per month for weekly surveys, up to $120 total per year, and 

    • $10 for surveys and swabs if you report symptoms, up to $30 per year. 

    If you join the sub-study for Part A, you can receive an extra $20 per blood sample. 

    If you join Part B, you will get free at-home rapid tests and up to $140 when you feel sick: 

    • $20 for enrollment,  

    • $5 per day for daily symptom diaries and swabs, up to $70 total,  

    • $10 for two weekly surveys, and   

    • $20 per blood draw, up to $40 total. 

  • If you have questions, please contact the SeaPrep study team!

  • To join the SeaPrep study, fill out the screening form to find out if you are eligible to enroll. To access this form, click onto the button “Screen for Eligibility” at the top right of this page.

Tips for Collecting a Nose Swab from Children

  • Make them feel as safe and comfortable as possible. If you can, ask a second adult or older sibling to help. Talk in a soothing voice and remember that the swab will be in their nose for less than 30 seconds.   

    • First, put your child in a safe, stable place such as a blanket on the floor, a changing table, car seat, or another adult’s arms.  

    • Consider swaddling them to help them relax and keep their arms from bumping you.

    • Give them a pacifier if it helps calm them but make sure you can still see their nostrils.  

  • Preschoolers should sit in a comfortable, secure place, like a car seat, highchair, or another person’s lap. Slightly older children can sit next to you on a couch or across from you in a chair.  Explain to them what will happen. Stay positive and answer any questions with clear, simple facts. You might say, “We’re going to help scientists see what’s up your nose.” Why? “Because it will help them keep kids like you healthy.” Will it hurt? “There’s no poke, but it could be a little uncomfortable or tickle for about ten seconds.”  

    • Be playful – you can call the swab a “nose tickler” or “booger picker.”  

    • Let them know it will be quick! You can even count together while you do it.  

    • Offer comfort and a distraction by playing a video or having them hold a favorite toy. 

    • Reward your child with praise and something they love like a toy, sticker, or a favorite snack. 

  • For school-aged children, explain each step, and answer their questions with clear, simple facts. Many school-aged children will have had a nasal swab before, but you can show them the ways this swab may be different from the type they’ve had before.   

Enrollment & Survey Activities

  • Household reporters will need to complete the Household Composition Survey, Household Characteristics Survey, KAP (Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices) Survey, and their general Enrollment Survey. All other household members must complete their Enrollment Survey in addition to a Knowledge Attitudes and Practices (KAP) Survey for those 15 and older.

  • After you complete your enrollment survey, you will receive a courtesy reminder to complete your weekly Symptom Survey on the day of the week you chose during your enrollment call. Notifications are sent at 6:30pm on that day and reminders are sent every two days at 8:30am until the survey is completed or the week has passed.

  • Occasionally automated survey notifications or reminders fail to send as expected. You should still plan to do the Symptom Survey weekly on the day you chose at enrollment whether you get a notification or not. If you aren’t getting notifications regularly, please let us know.

  • Sometimes Study Activities Pages fail to update overnight. If on your chosen weekly survey day your Symptom Survey link is not showing as expected, check for it under “The activities below can be completed as needed” section under your name and complete using that link. If your survey link is not showing at all, try again the next day or let us know.

    If you reported symptoms on a recent Symptom Survey and have entered an Illness Event, your Symptom Survey will be unavailable for 2-3 weeks. Instead, you will be asked to complete Illness Event: Weekly Report surveys. More information should be visible regarding survey dates on your Study Activities Page.

  • If you report symptoms on a Symptom Survey, you will be placed in an Illness Event for the next 2-3 weeks. Instead of your Symptom Survey, you will be asked to complete Illness Event: Weekly Report surveys 7 and 14 days after the date your symptoms started. In these surveys, you will be asked if your symptoms have continued, worsened, or resolved. If your symptoms resolve, please be sure to report that in your Illness Event survey so you can return to completing weekly Symptom Surveys earlier. Please see the timeline below for more details.

  • If your symptoms are due to an unrelated condition, such as allergies, a brief headache, or digestive distress related to other causes, you should not report them in your Symptom Survey.

    If you are not sure whether your symptoms are illness related, we recommend that you report the symptoms and collect a nasal swab when prompted in your survey. If symptoms resolve within a week or are determined to be due to something other than respiratory illness, you can report that you no longer have the symptoms on the Illness Event: 1st Weekly Report Survey and you will be exited from your Illness Event the following week.

  • You can update your phone number, email address, or communication preferences by going to your household activities page and clicking the “Update my information” link under the appropriate household member’s name.

  • You can update your delivery and/or pickup address by going to your household activities page and clicking “Update my household’s delivery address” and/or “Update my household’s pickup address” under the household reporter’s name. Please be sure to complete BOTH the deliver and pickup surveys if you move.

  • For uploading baseline vaccinations upon enrollment, we recommend that you access MyIR Mobile. MyIR Mobile is a website that connects to your state vaccine records. Please sign in or register for an account here: www.myirmobile.com.  More instructions on how to download your vaccination record from MyIR can be found in the “Vaccine Record Upload Survey”.

    When uploading newly received vaccines, you may choose to upload records from MyIR, your own Electronic Medical Record (EMR), such as MyChart, or documentation from the pharmacy at which you received your vaccinations. MyIR is always preferred as it contains all of the information we require, including dose lot numbers.

  • If you report getting a new vaccine in your Symptom Survey, you will be asked to complete a Vaccine Update Survey to provide more details.

    Once you complete the Vaccine Update Survey, you will be prompted to complete a Vaccine Record Upload Survey to share a PDF or image of your vaccination record. If no record is available, you can ignore that survey until you have a record to upload, or contact us to dismiss the survey if you won’t be able to upload a record.

    Please do not report a vaccine in your Symptom Survey if you already added it in a Vaccine Update Survey.

    If you receive a notification to complete the Vaccine Update Survey and you already provided the information in an earlier Vaccine Update Survey, you can answer “No” to both questions on the Vaccine Update Survey to clear the survey and stop the reminders.

Withdrawal & Study Pauses

  • If you are going out of town for two weeks or more and will be unable or do not wish to complete surveys during that time, please let us know the dates so that we may put you in a “study pause.” This will pause study notifications and survey and sample collection requirements for the dates you provide. If you have access to strong internet and wish to continue completing surveys while you are away, you’re welcome to do so. Please do not travel with sample collection kits – these must be returned by USPS from within King, Snohomish, or Pierce counties.

    If you report illness symptoms and complete your Symptom Survey while you are out of town, you can tell us in that survey that you will not collect a sample at that time. You should complete the “Illness Event: Swab Activation & Collection Survey” within 6 days of reporting symptoms to collect a nasal swab.

  • If you report symptoms in your Symptom Survey and aren’t able to swab when prompted, you can tell us you cannot collect a nasal swab in your survey. If able, you can collect a swab up to 6 days after symptom onset. You will need to use the “Illness Event: Swab Activation & Collection Survey” that will appear on your page to enter the date and time of sample collection and the barcode from the swab kit to return the sample to the lab for testing. Please do not send swabs by USPS from outside of King, Snohomish, or Pierce counties as they will not reach us in time for testing.

  • Unfortunately, we cannot accept any study materials back once they have left our lab. Please dispose of all study materials after you withdraw from the study. Sample kits can be taken apart and many pieces recycled.

Sample & Study Kit Questions

  • We have included a magnifying glass to aid you in reading the sample ID barcodes on your study kits, which you must enter into a survey when completing a sample collection. The IDs must be small enough to fit on our sample collection tubes, so they are difficult for many participants to read.

  • The Flowflex Home Tests you receive at the beginning of each respiratory illness season will not be replenished until the following respiratory season. Once you have used your allotment of tests, the study will not prompt use of additional home tests in your surveys. It’s important that you save study-provided tests for use only when prompted in a study survey, and that you report the result as requested so that we can track how many tests you have used.

  • No, we are unable to return results of these tests as they are for research only and are not clinically validated.

  • If prompted to use a Flowflex Home Test in a study survey, you should ONLY use the new Flowflex Plus 4-in-1 Home tests, which include a test for RSV. You may choose to use your old Flowflex tests for personal use only, but be sure to check their expiration.If you choose to use your old ones for personal use, you can check for extended expiration dates by entering the lot number on the box here: Flowflex® Plus COVID-19 & Flu A/B Home Test | Shelf Life Extension.

    If you used an expired Flowflex Home Test and received a negative result but are still experiencing illness symptoms, you may consider taking another rapid test on an un-expired test or consulting a medical provider.

  • Collected samples do not require refrigeration.

  • You should report symptoms in your Symptom Survey first, then the survey will direct you to collect a nasal sample if needed. Symptoms can be reported on your designated weekly survey day or any other day of the week if needed. You do not have to report symptoms that you can clearly attribute to something unrelated to respiratory illness. If you aren’t sure, you should err on the side of reporting and completing a swab so that we can test for the presence of respiratory germs. For a sample to be returned to the lab and tested, you must enter the date and time of sample collection and the kit ID barcode into the appropriate survey.

  • ·         We collect information about positive tests for Covid-19, flu, and RSV only. If you have symptoms of illness, you should complete a Symptom Survey and report your symptoms, and you should be prompted to complete a study swab. In that survey, you can indicate whether you tested positive for Covid-19, flu, or RSV. If you are already in an illness episode and cannot complete a Symptom Survey to report your positive test, please use the “Report a positive test result for RSV, flu, or COVID-19 from outside of the study” link to report the positive test.  

Compensation

  • Compensation is sent via email as a Tango link (virtual gift card). The link will lead you to the Tango website, which provides hundreds of gift card options that you can apply your funds to. You may be compensated for two study activities in a single gift card or you may receive multiple gift cards for each study activity you complete. When will I get my compensation?

    You should expect to get your payment within a month of completing a study activity. If you haven’t gotten payment 30 days after completing a study activity, please contact us.

    There may be rare circumstances where we do not compensate you within 30 days, but we will make sure you are compensated as soon as the study team identifies the missed payment.

  • If you join Part A, you will get up to $165 per year:

    • $15 for enrollment, including completion of all enrollment surveys 

    • $10 per month for weekly surveys, up to $120 total per year 

    • $10 for surveys and swabs if you report symptoms, up to $30 per year

    If you join Part A sub-study, you will get $20 per Tasso+ blood draw (up to $80) in addition to the payments above.  

    If you join Part B, you will get up to $140 per illness event: 

    • $20 for enrollment, including completion of all enrollment surveys 

    • $5 per day for daily symptom surveys and swabs, up to $70 total

    •  Additional $5 for completing all daily symptom surveys per week, up to $10 total $20 per Tasso+ blood draw, up to $40 total

  • While we do our best to compensate whole households at once, each household member may not always get compensation on the same day. This can be due to the volume of participants we have to compensate, and the fact that we process compensation by participant ID, rather than by household. Most often, it is because household members did not complete the same study activities or did not complete them at the same time.

  • At this time, there is no direct way to send your Tango gift card to a charity or foundation of your choice. Tango has the option to send your gift card to one of the Dots.eco funds, which support a variety of environmental initiatives. Alternatively, you may redeem your link for a prepaid Visa gift card through Tango and give the Visa gift card to whichever cause you’d like to support, if they accept Visa gift cards. Some local organizations may also have an Amazon wishlist on their website, so you could redeem your link for an Amazon gift card and use it to shop for your preferred organization.

    We recommend that you check with your charity, foundation, or organization of choice before you redeem your Tango link for a pre-paid Visa card or an Amazon gift card.

  • If you are having technical difficulty accessing your card, we recommend:

    • Clearing your browser cache

    • Using the Chrome browser

    • Accessing your rewards on a computer browser instead of on a mobile device

    There is information on troubleshooting common Tango card issues on the Tango website at the following link: https://help.tangocard.com/s/article/Troubleshooting-Common-Reward-Link-Issues

    If you have tried the above steps and still need customer service assistance, you can contact them at this page:  https://blackhawknetwork.com/lets-talk/get-support

  • Unfortunately, we can only distribute individual links to each member of the household every month. You will have to redeem each code you receive individually.

Sample Packaging & Shipping

  • In most cases, your package containing sample kits will arrive within 7 business days after your consent appointment. If you consent to Part B of the study, you can expect your package to arrive within two days of consent.

  • In most cases, your study materials should arrive within 7 business days from your consent appointment. If you are still without your materials after this time, please contact the study team to track your package or to arrange for new materials to be sent to you.

  • Sample pickup should occur on the next USPS business day after it is scheduled in a survey or by a study team member. Pickups occur 6am – 7pm with your regular mail delivery. USPS does not operate on Sundays and federal holidays, and pickups may be disrupted due to severe weather. If you believe your package should have been picked up and it has not been, you can take your package to your nearest post office or contact the study team to arrange a pickup to occur the next available day. As a reminder, USPS may not accept packages that have been improperly packaged or labeled. Please ensure your sample is placed back into the kit box it came in and then inside the mailer with the USPS return label marked with an “H”.

    USPS may not have accepted your sample if it was labeled incorrectly. Please make sure that all samples sent back to our lab are put back in the box the kit came in and then placed inside the mailer bag. Please make sure you are using the correct mailer bag, which should have a shipping label with an “H” on it. Please put it out the next day with the correct label or drop it off at USPS as soon as possible.

  • If you did not complete a survey along with your sample collection, a pickup was not scheduled with USPS. Please be sure to complete the appropriate survey for your sample and schedule the pickup in the survey.

    If you scheduled a pickup and your sample was not retrieved, please drop it at the post office as soon as possible or contact us to help schedule a pickup.

  • Yes, it’s fine to open your mailer bag and securely seal it afterwards. You can secure your mailer with duct tape, or by placing the entire bag containing the kit inside a large freezer bag. Samples must be sent back inside the specimen bag, then placed inside the kit box, and then put inside the mailer (bag, box, bag). USPS may not accept kits that are incorrectly packaged. Please ensure the shipping label on the mailer is the one that contains a large “H”, or USPS may not accept the package.

  • We may have shipped your household new shipping labels due to updated USPS hazmat requirements. Please make sure to put these labels over the old shipping label on the mailer bag to ensure USPS accepts your package. Older labels had a “P” on them while the newer, correct labels have an “H”.