How might your team handle this situation?
A lot of important suggestions have already been made by my fellow learners. Here are a few other thoughts.
After such an attack it would be important for the research team to convene a meeting with their local CAB and other stakeholders to properly debrief the incident and to develop strategies that are appropriate to that local context to prevent such attacks in the future. They may also wish to develop clear communication about the attack and future strategies to share with trial participants and potential participants so that the research team is in charge of the communication about what happened and can also communicate their response, to minimize potential additional rumours. In addition the research team should discuss what their responsibilities are towards the participants who were harmed. Finally, the research team should discuss with the CAB what kind of communication approaches could be useful to dispel the rumours that the trial is “training men to be gay.”
