Table 4 Quotations for the theme of ‘Extreme vulnerability of research participants’

Individual and population vulnerability

…this is a vulnerable group of people who are desperate for treatment for prevention, for cure, and for getting lives back into some semblance of normality. And so there’s a desperation amongst the population and as such, that that heightens the vulnerability (REC7)

…generally the population at the moment is vulnerable, regardless of whether there’s a formal vulnerability attached, people are scared, people are anxious, people are out of work, you know, there’s all these pressures attached. And so, I think there’s huge community vulnerability at the moment (REC5)

…the participants are very vulnerable, no family around, often died without family or otherwise, were singled out of any contact whatsoever. And you may find that a lot of the clinical staff were putting barriers in front of them as well. And that’s obviously terrible (REC1)

…for anybody coming into hospital with COVID infection means that, you know, you’re really sick, and you might die. And regardless of how hypoxic you are at that point, there is that fear, that vulnerability (REC9)

COVID-19 stigmatisation and prejudice

…being COVID-19 positive and the ospitalizedn and prejudice that has arisen due to this being a notifiable disorder and the fear of the disorder (REC17)

There’s massive ospitalizedn in the community. Families, very similar to HIV, families who had a particular patient with COVID-19 are deemed to be a massive threat to the community (REC1)

Therapeutic misconception

I think therapeutic misconception is very high. I think the participants are very vulnerable, and I don’t think we understand how vulnerable participants are (REC2)

A big misconception I guarantee you has occurred, I think people just volunteered because once you know how dangerous this disorder is, people may or may not have given voluntary, informed consent, not that they were coerced (REC13)