Once Laura looks at the questions the same google form or surveymonkey form could be used by all. It should be tested with some dummy data first, and then the "dummy" data looked at and analyzed before doing the random calling.
Would also be good to test the survey instrument by calling some known people first before doing the random calls, to catch any potential errors in the wording of the questions and so forth.
Survey monkey is free for a maximum of 10 questions.
Two additional questions could be asked after a respondent answers "yes" to "dying from covid": did the person have any other conditions, and was the person intubated?
Considering what others have said, this may be an option.
It occurred to me that some people might not trust who's on the other end of the phone - in this time of paranoia. They may want proof of ID from the caller? Also, do you need a permit to conduct a poll?
There's no way to provide "proof of ID" on a phone call. And I've never known a telemarketer to be asked to do so.
And not, you don't need a permit.
In addition, when it comes to polls (pointed out recently by YouTubers in particular as it relates to political polls), they rely on polling a certain demographic. I.E only those people who have home phone lines. Thus they tend to miss out on input from on-line or cell phones users. Will that skew the results?
Yeah, it would. You would need to try to sample the others.
As this thing is global, it could generate huge amounts of information that then has to be centrally processed and collated.
Sounds like a big job. Um, probably a complete understatement.
I guess it depends on how much information you want and how quickly.
Well, if a dozen or so people could get 25 or 30 respondents that are truly random, it would give a decent overview and that's not too huge. I'm not thinking that people would get hundreds of interviews, just a good couple dozen that are random.
Also, nobody has really raised their hand to actually DO the interviews. So I'm wondering if the idea will even get off the ground!
It could be translated into several languages as well if needed and that would be than a good random mix. Beside the poll could be done online as well, there are some platforms created for this. Though the data must be handled afterwards.
Yes, it would need to be translated.
The online option is sounding pretty good, but I still think some good, random, cold calls would help a lot. What are people thinking who do not spend a lot of time online? Remember, online is where the trolls are.
This is cool, but the one issue I see is a practical one. The vast majority of people have cellphones, no one uses land lines anymore. And phone books don't exist either, they are just yellow pages now. How to contact random people by phone?
I didn't know that phonebooks don't exist anymore. How do other pollsters get their data?
Yes, that could be tricky, indeed Also, it would also be good to think about how to mask the calling phone number.
Would it be equally good to maybe create an online poll? And translate it into several languages? People like doing all kind of questionnaires, so perhaps this could be equally effective.
Maybe on the same page some helpful tips (pipe breathing, soda, vit c, elderberry, etc.) could also be added.
Didn't think about masking the calling number. That's important. Again, the online option is beginning to look better. I wouldn't add any "tips" though. Gotta keep it clean.
I second this suggestion. We could translate the online poll and put it up on our localized SOTT-pages. Or, even better, we could also use something like
Survey Monkey (with localized language-versions), which will
generate statistics automagically. Survey Monkey is one of the most used online survey tools used in the scientific communities.
In my experience, people don't usually like it when 'sales people' call unexpectedly them on their mobiles. They can also get suspicious, and worried about "How did you get my number?" I usually hang up almost immediately, after politetly saying "I'm not interested" to whatever they offer. An online survey will give at least a feel of greater anonymity and more time to think about the answers.
Again, online option is sounding better all the time. We could maybe ask the respondents that if they know someone who is not online, to ask them the questions also.
Also, a troll can pass the survey to his other buddy trolls, and we may get skewed results. In this case random phone conversation sounds better, of course. Hmm...
