CANVAS-COVID Study FAQ

The purpose of the study is to find out how often health events occur after a COVID-19 or influenza vaccine.

When you enrol yourself or your child (the participant), we will ask for contact information (e.g., the participant’s first name, your email address and telephone number), the date the participant’s COVID-19/influenza vaccination and vaccine product. 

After enrolling, you will be sent 3 surveys that will ask some personal information (age, sex and gender), information on any past confirmed COVID-19 illness and any health events since the COVID-19 or influenza vaccine. We want to know about any health problems which prevent the participant from going about regular daily activities and/or need medical care.

Participants 6 months to 4 years of age:

• Survey 1: 8 days AFTER the first COVID-19 vaccine
• Survey 2: 8 AFTER the second COVID-19 vaccine
• Survey 3: 6 months AFTER the second COVID-19 vaccine

Participants 5 years of age and older:

• Survey 1: 8 days AFTER their most recent booster (3^rd or more dose) COVID-19 vaccine or influenza vaccine

If you report a health problem which made the participant visit a doctor or nurse, we may call you to find out more about the symptoms of the health problem. 

There is no direct benefit if you decide to take part in this study, but the information that will be collected might help us better understand the safety of the COVID-19 and influenza vaccines in children and adolescents.

Not at this time. Enrollment in the non-vaccinated group is complete.

Not at this time. Enrollment in the non-vaccinated group is complete.

Yes. You or your child may join as an unvaccinated participant and then re-enrol under the vaccinated category after receiving the vaccine.

We have already enrolled over 1 million adults! We hope to enrol at least 50,000 adolescents and children.

Participant confidentiality and privacy is of the utmost importance to the study team. 

If you decide to participate, your email address, phone number and the first name of the participant (you or your child) will be kept on the REDCap secure server housed in Vancouver at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. Only study staff will have access to your email address, phone number and first name. Survey responses (without contact information) will be downloaded for analysis by the study team and by provincial public health. All data will be deleted from the REDCap database at the end of the study.

No records which identify you will leave the researchers’ offices unless required by law.

You or your child will not be identified by name in any study reports.

The most common cause for the survey link not working is anti-virus software (e.g. McAfee). You may need to temporarily turn off your anti-virus settings while on the survey website. You can also try using a different device or different browser.

Vaccinated participants will need to register within 1 week of receiving their vaccine.

The control survey is tracking health events occurring in the community. If similar rates of certain health events are happening in the control group and vaccinated group, it is likely that the vaccines are not causing that health event.

This survey is not mandatory; you do not have to enroll if you do not want to.