ABOUT OUR STUDY
Our Study is a Collaboration between Doctors and Engineers at UCL
Working together we can answer some of the most important questions
COVID and Religious Worship
We are investigating how COVID-19 has changed the practice of religious worship in the UK. We also
want to understand how much aerosol is generated when speaking, chanting, or singing in religious
worship and how much that changes when a person wears a face mask. This information might help
scientists work out the risk of transmitting COVID-19 when people sing or chant in religious worship.
The Study Plans
We will ask you to fill in an online questionnaire. We may then invite you to come to UCL to speak
and sing in front of a high-speed camera where we can watch the aerosol (droplets) you generate.
We will record you speaking and singing normally and when you wear various facemasks. We may
ask you to come back on a second occasion. Although we are not paying volunteers to take part, if
you need us to pay for your tube fare for each visit, we will do this.
We will ask you about yourself including your age, sex, religion and ethnic background. We will then ask about your spirituality and prayers before COVID-19 and how things have changed since the pandemic.
We are looking to see how much you know about government guidelines and how well your place of worship has responded to these.
We also want to understand how the new way of life has impacted on communal prayer.
FInally, we will ask you about how the pandemic has affected your income, mood, socialising, eating habits etc
It will take about 15 minutes to fill in the questionnaire.
Experiment One
We will invite about 50 of the people who live in London and who complete the online questionnaire to come to UCL for the first experiment. This will take less than 1 hour.
To make it COVID-19 safe, no other volunteers will come at the same time.
If we invite you, you will come to a laboratory in our Engineering Faculty at UCL. We will ask you to say some words and to hum and sing a song. You will do this with and without wearing a face mask.
We will video the area in front of your face using a high-speed camera whilst shining a bright laser light at this area. This will help us to see how many droplets you produce, how fast they move and possibly how big they are.
We may also record you as you speak, sing or hum.
We will protect you from the laser by placing a safety curtain between you and the laser. You will also wear laser safety goggles.
We will reimburse travel expenses if you need us to.
Experiment Two
We will invite back a smaller number of people (about 12 in total) to repeat the experiment. This will probably be 1-4 weeks after the first time.
This time, the setup will be almost the same, but we will ask participants to wear different types of face masks and to speak, sing or hum for longer than in the previous step. This experiment will take up to 2 hours.
Once again, you will wear laser safety goggles and stand up while you do the experiment. You will be able to sit down every so often if you need to.
We will ensure that you are safe. We will conduct the research in accordance with legal laser safety rules and government safety guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We will reimburse your travel expenses if you need us to.
