In the Spring and Summer of 2020, mass protests erupted across the US in response to police violence against African Americans. At the same time, the US was experiencing a COVID-19 pandemic. Many public health experts wondered whether participating in these protests (exposure) would be associated with being diagnosed with COVID-19 (outcome).

Imagine you have been hired to draft a plan to study this potential association.

• Which study design would you choose? (Almost any design is okay). Explain the factors that influenced why you selected that one. Include some of the benefits/drawbacks of your selected study design and the benefits/drawbacks of the study designs you did not select.
• Write your research question and make a hypothesis about the results.
• Briefly describe how you would conduct your study, including
  • Recruitment strategy and number of participants
  • The measure of association to be used (RR/OR)
  • Potential confounding variables you would want to collect data on so you could take them into account
  • Potential biases your study could have and how you would plan to minimize them