Cohort profile: Virus Watch: Understanding community incidence, symptom profiles, and transmission of COVID-19 in relation to population movement and behaviour

Key Features ### Competing Interest Statement ACH serves on the UK New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group. AMJ is Chair of the Committee for Strategic Coordination for Health of the Public Research. ### Clinical Protocols ### Funding Statement This work was supported by the Medical Research Council [Grant Ref: MC_PC 19070] awarded to UCL on 30 March 2020 and Medical Research Council [Grant Ref: MR/V028375/1] awarded on 17 August 2020. The study also received $15,000 of advertising credit from Facebook to support a pilot social media recruitment campaign on 18th August 2020. The antibody testing undertaken by the vaccine evaluation subcohort was supported by funding from the Department of Health and Social Care from Feb 2021 - March 2022. From 1 May 2022 Virus Watch received funding from the European Union (Project: 101046314). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. This study was supported by the Wellcome Trust through a Wellcome Clinical Research Career Development Fellowship to RWA [206602] and a Clinical PhD Fellowship to AA [206441/Z/17/Z] IB is supported by an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship. SB and TB are supported by an MRC doctoral studentship (MR/N013867/1). Research at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health led by PH and LW is supported by the NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: This study has been approved by the Hampstead NHS Health Research Authority Ethics Committee. Ethics approval number: 20/HRA/2320. This study uses NHS HES (Admitted Patient Care, Outpatient Bookings, Emergency Care Dataset and Critical Care), ONS mortality, Vaccination (NIMS), and COVID-19 testing data (Pillar 2 and SGSS) that were provided within the terms of a data-sharing agreement (DARS-NIC-372269-N8D7Z-V1.6) to the researchers by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (NHS Digital). The data do not belong to the authors and may not be shared by the authors, except in aggregate form for publication. Data can be obtained by submitting a data request through the NHS Digital Data Access Request Service. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes Given the sensitive content in our dataset (information on health, income and household characteristics) for this study, we cannot publish data at the individual level, publicly. We are sharing individual record level data (excluding any data or variables originating from linkage via NHS Digital) on the ONS SRS (DOI: 10.57906/s5f5-nq13). The data are available under restricted access and can be obtained by submitting a request directly to the SRS. We regularly share results and updates on the study via a "Findings so far" section on our website - https://ucl-virus-watch.net/ * DHSC : Department of Health and Social Care GP : General Practitioner HES : Hospital Episode Statistics IMD : Index of Multiple Deprivation LCRN : Local Clinical Research Network MRC : Medical Research Council NHS : National Health Service NIHR : National Institute for Health and Care Research NIMS : National Immunisation Management Service ONS : Office for National Statistics PCR : Polymerase Chain Reaction SGSS : Second Generation Surveillance System SRS : Secure Research Service UKRI : UK Research and Innovation