Just got a call from that same number, the guy said it was a survey about mass transit in my borough of ny, told him i don't take mass transit, then ask questions about people in the home, i said too many & refused any questions, took more that 5 minutes
I called them directly and the person answered like it was a regular phone -I asked if this was Pew Research but he said no and hung up - no longer answering when I called again
Survey or "research" companies are "hired guns". Anybody that needs a ton of data from a survey can write one and have companies like Pew or Gallup handle it for them. The call I'm getting is for a VA study I volunteered for.while on deployment. The VA hired them to administer it. You folks getting calls "from" the GA Department of Health are getting called by Pew for GDH. Who knows who hired them for the survey about all the Jewish stuff.
I worked for Gallup when I was younger. We every thing from CNN polls to Budweiser post-Superbowl commercial surveys to drug company surveys asking about kids and head lice (you can imagine the responses we got on that one). Do the surveyor a favor and either do it or in plain terms say you don't want to be involved. If they keep going it's not personal, they just are required to try again.
Back on the Jewish thing, our surveys had to be an accurate sampling of the public. Towards the end of certain surveys we only needed certain demographics, like say a black man aged 25-34, or an Asian woman with a masters degree. If we called someone that didn't fit the demos we needed, the survey got cut.